Saturday: Hili dialogue

Welcome to CaturSaturday, April 26, 2025: shabbos for Jewish cats and International Lime Day. The best are key limes, which can be used to make one of the world’s best pies. Below: ZESTING A LIME! (It’s probably the normal, or “Persian” lime.

It’s also Commonwealth Day, International Bagpipe Day, National Blueberry Popover Day, and National Ranch Dressing Day, celebrating the condiment that has allowed many people to eat salads. The Irish bagpipe (Uilleann pipe) is more sonorous by far than the Scottish one. Here’s all you need to know about them:

Readers are welcome to mark notable events, births, or deaths on this day by consulting the April 26 Wikipedia page.

Da Nooz:

*Well, the inevitable happened yesterday: the Executive and Judicial branches butted heads in a way that could have huge repercussions.  The situation: the FBI has arrested a Wisconsin state judge, accusing her of hiding an immigrant from the Feds.

F.B.I. agents arrested a county judge in Milwaukee on Friday on charges of obstructing immigration agents by steering an undocumented immigrant through a side door in her courtroom while the agents waited in a public hallway to apprehend him.

The arrest of a sitting state court judge is a major escalation in the Trump administration’s battle with local authorities over deportations. The administration has demanded, under threat of investigation or prosecution, that local officials assist federal efforts to deport millions of undocumented immigrants.

Charging documents describe a confrontation last Friday at Judge Dugan’s courthouse, in which federal agents say she was “visibly upset and had a confrontational, angry demeanor” when a group of immigration, D.E.A. and F.B.I. agents came to arrest Eduardo Flores-Ruiz, a citizen of Mexico who was in her courtroom to face misdemeanor criminal charges.

According to the criminal complaint, the judge confronted the agents and told them to go talk to the chief judge of the courthouse. She then returned to her courtroom.

“Despite having been advised of the administrative warrant for the arrest of Flores-Ruiz, Judge Dugan then escorted Flores-Ruiz and his counsel out of the courtroom through the ‘jury door,’ which leads to a nonpublic area of the courthouse,” said the complaint, which was written by an F.B.I. agent.

The judge was charged with obstructing a proceeding of a federal agency and concealing an individual to prevent his discovery and arrest.

After a brief appearance as a defendant in federal court in Milwaukee, about a mile from her own courthouse, the judge was released on her own recognizance.

Here’s the complaint against the judge (h/t Matthew); I’m not sure if they should have used a grand jury.  These are both felonies, but I don’t know the rules about grand juries.

I don’t know what is going to happen now; are they going to convict a judge?  Would any jury find her guilty? If so, could she go to jail? Would she lose her judgeship? If she did violate the law, and they can prove that, then yes, she should be convicted.  But there’s always jury nullification, and if any “crime” is ripe for that, it’s this one. We’ll just have to wait and see.

*The big news is that Nellie Bowles is back writing her weekly news & snark summary at The Free Press (I was going to unsubscribe if she stopped). But there’s a piece today, “TGIF: Vladimir, STOP!“, and I’ll steal three bits from it. Welcome back, Nellie!

→ About that approval rating: It’s not going well.

And Trump, who has been quite confident he can fix this Ukraine situation, was caught flat-footed after Russia bombed several districts in Kyiv, killing at least 12 people. The president posted a Truth Social missive, writing: “Vladimir, STOP!” We finally have a president who leads with strength. A president who calls it like he sees it. “Vladimir, STOP!” he posts on a niche social media site called Truth Social. That’ll do it. Now Vladimir Putin will know to fear American greatness. Otherwise, it’s time-out for him, possibly no dessert.

→ Everything America has ever done is fake and gay: Candace Owens this week took aim at NASA and the moon landing, which, according to her, did not happen. Here’s Candace: “You must come to terms with the fact that NASA and space missions have always been this fake and gay. You just weren’t alive for the original ones, and you need to learn the history of NASA, of the Apollo programs, which were occult and satanic. It was literally meant to be an Antichrist movement to make people believe in man. It’s a fact.” She concluded, “Space has always been exceedingly fake and gay.” Candace is a lot like Luigi Mangione fangirl Taylor Lorenz. Even when they are directly criticizing me (Candace once called me a “hysterical lesbian”), even when they are saying things I know are insane (Brigitte Macron, please), I just can’t stop watching. I want more. Yell at me, Candace! I won’t fight back!

I’ve put the “fake and gay” video in the tweets below so you can see the loon for yourselves.  One more from Nellie:

→ Ivy update: Students at Yale University briefly set up a new pro-Hamas encampment, where they chanted a call-and-response: We will honor all our martyrs / Mothers, fathers, sons, and daughters. And no, they are not talking about their parents and siblings who sacrificed so much to get them to Yale (I’m guessing they screen calls from their actual mothers). They said the quiet part out loud by wearing Hamas headbands, the hottest new campus accessory. So again, to reiterate, they are wearing Hamas headbands and chanting to honor their martyrs. If anyone buys the line that these are just anti-war protesters, or that they’re protesting some specific Israeli policy, you’re deluding yourself. They are Hamas supporters, plain and simple.

The Hamasniks also did pretty aggro things like throwing water at Jewish students exiting an event with Itamar Ben-Gvir, an Israeli politician. As I say to my daughter when she does that: Not funny.

Elsewhere, hip-looking protesters in London chanted One struggle, one fight / Palestine, trans rights. Which really is very curious. And at Coachella last Friday, the Irish hip-hop group Kneecap projected “Fuck Israel / Free Palestine” on the screen behind them as their show ended, with the crowd breaking out into a “Free Palestine” chant.

*Here’s a clickbaity essay in the “news” section of the Wall Street Journal: “A conservative Harvard Professor on how the university could save itself.” The author James Hankens, a professor of history at Harvard.

My sense is that the great majority of my colleagues don’t care for campus political activism. As an out-of-the-closet conservative, I often find myself playing the confidant to my liberal colleagues. They sidle up and say, sotto voce, “Please don’t tell anyone I said this,” then proceed to unload their disgust with the latest activist outrages. They might have identified as leftists in their college years, but a frequent refrain I hear from them now is “this is not what the left used to stand for.”

Faculty at Harvard for the most part are serious scholars and scientists who just want to get on with their work. They have books to write and papers to publish. They want to pass on what they have learned to the next generation. They resent it when activists create turbulence at department meetings and waste everyone’s time.

The biggest time-waster at the moment is dealing with the budget cuts and hiring freezes set off by the Trump administration’s withdrawal of federal funding. Many of my colleagues can see clearly enough that this crisis has been triggered by progressive activists, who are predominantly graduate students or members of the university’s vast diversity bureaucracy. Many faculty wish that the fanatics would just shut up and take the target off Harvard’s back.

. . .The message is clear and bold: The current Harvard administration wants to be a leader in restoring the historic principles of higher education in America. But the Trump administration’s actions have weakened internal support for reform at Harvard and hardened its resolve to resist White House pressure. On Monday, Harvard announced that it was escalating the conflict by suing the government for violation of its civil rights. Right now, most of the university is hoping that the courts will stop the Trump administration’s threatened funding cuts, until such time as Harvard can reattach its umbilical cord to a federal government under Democratic control.

That, in my view, would be a mistake. Even if the courts do succeed in restoring Harvard’s federal funding, which is by no means certain, the university should think carefully about the hazards of accepting federal funding in an age of populism. My progressive colleagues were fine with federal influence on Harvard so long as it furthered what they saw as just causes, such as diversity and equity. Now that their research budgets are being held hostage to the demands of an unfriendly White House, left-leaning faculty are starting to appreciate anew the value of freedom from government mandates.

In the short term, unwinding the university’s dependence on federal funding risks creating a substantial deficit. But that funding itself comes at a steep price, not all of which can be measured in dollars and cents. It changes how the university operates and how power is distributed within it. Federal funding tends to increase the number and power of administrators, to turn faculty into their supplicants and to insulate the university from alumni opinion.

Given the need for somebody to support at least scientific research, that that has been the federal government (NIH, NSF, and DEA), and “strings” for that money have been merit and not much political, AND that university research is the lifeblood of scientific progress, I’m not sure what alternative Hankins proposes. Could he be unfamiliar with the generally good system of federally funding at least scientific research? His substitute, given below, seems inadequate: “The alumni will fund that research.” I seriously doubt it.

. . . . There are very good reasons for Harvard (and other universities) to reduce our financial dependence on the federal government. Instead, we should strengthen ties with loyal alumni who know and love Harvard. Alumni are loyal in part because they remember with gratitude the teaching they received as undergraduates. That makes them more closely aligned with the university’s real mission: to teach and to produce high-quality, unpoliticized research. Empowering alumni would carry its own risks, no doubt, but in my experience, they have a much sounder sense than politicians and government bureaucrats of what Harvard should be doing to help the country and itself.

*Luigi Mangione, accused of killing United Healthcare CEO Brian Thompson, has pleaded “not guilty.”  As far as I can see, the evidence points to guilt beyond a reasonable doubt, but of course I’m not on the jury.  And what else could he do? If he’s convicted, whether he pleaded “guilty” or “not guilty” won’t affect the “plea tax”: the idea that by pleading guilty you may get a lighter sentence. Not in his case!:

Luigi Mangione on Friday pleaded not guilty to Manhattan federal court charges that he stalked and murdered the UnitedHealthcare chief executive, Brian Thompson, late last year.

Mangione, 26, walked into court just before 1pm. He was wearing tan jail garb with a white long-sleeved undershirt. He chatted with his lawyers, who sat alongside him, and at one point appeared to smile; he could be seen flipping through papers on the table.

Mangione could face the death penalty in a case that shocked America for the killing of a top business executive on New York’s streets but also triggered an outpouring of anger against America’s for-profit healthcare industry.

As with prior proceedings, throngs of supporters of Mangione queued up outside to secure a much-coveted seat in court. Many sported medical masks or sunglasses, or both, and were reticent about speaking to media but did attack the healthcare system.

“I am a chronically ill person. I live in chronic pain,” one woman told the Guardian in explaining why she was at court. She said that she had never been in “that much medical debt” compared to others, but “when I say not that much I mean like $30,000.”

Even if it were proved that Mangione killed Thompson, she said, she believes his guilt embodies an ethical grey area. The healthcare industry kills thousands and Mangione was one man, she said. “One life [versus] like a thousand lives, that moral dilemma,” she said.

Ah, there’s the rub.  Many people actually thought it was great that Mangione assassinated Thompson, even though Thompson didn’t make any of those healthcare decisions. Never mind–he was the boss. But it’s never right to kill someone unless it’s in self-defense.  But of course this goes for the state, too, or so I think. If he’s guilty, life without parole, but no executions.

*And from the AP’s “oddities” section, an unusual National Anthem before a hockey game:

The Los Angeles Kings have brought back the harmonica-playing senior citizens whose rendition of the U.S. national anthem caused a sensation before their playoff opener.

The Kings welcomed back the Harmonica Class from the Koreatown Senior and Community Center for a second performance of “The Star-Spangled Banner” before Game 2 of their first-round Stanley Cup playoff series against the Edmonton Oilers on Wednesday night.

The harmonica players became a viral sensation two days earlier when they played the anthem before Game 1. Fans in the Kings’ downtown arena loved the surprising performance and loudly sang along to the plaintive harmonica rendition, which was viewed millions of times on social media.

After wearing traditional Korean garb for Game 1, the harmonica players sported black Kings jerseys for Game 2. They received huge cheers before and after their performance.

Here you go.  It’s funny and touching at the same time.

Meanwhile in Dobrzyn, Hili is guilt-tripping Andrzej into handing out noms:

Hili: Don’t you have any conscience?

A: You are my conscience.

Hili: So I say to you: it’s time to eat something.

Hili: Czy ty sumienia nie masz?

Ja: Ty jesteś moim sumieniem.

Hili: Więc mówię ci, że pora coś zjeść.

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

Masih’s back, and she found a bit of stupidity: Iranians saying that she’s PAYING Iranian women to remove their hijabs. Note that the English subtitles move towards the very bottom of the screen as the video proceeds.

The regime in Iran claims that the reason more and more women are removing their hijab in the streets is because I’m secretly paying their fines in Bitcoin.
Watch the video. This isn’t just my response, it’s the response of Iranian women risking everything to say: This is how we… pic.twitter.com/qgLLXVQffr

— Masih Alinejad Read More