Trump really said this. Out loud. In public.

I found confirmation at The New Republic:

Donald Trump doesn’t think the federal government should fund child care, Medicare, or Medicaid.

At an Easter Lunch reception at the White House Wednesday, the president told guests what exactly he thought about what the U.S. should be prioritizing, and it doesn’t bode well for the government’s most widely used and popular social programs.

“I said to [Office of Management and Budget Director Russell Vought], ‘Don’t send any money for daycare because the United States can’t take care of daycare.’ That has to be up to a state. We can’t take care of daycare. We’re a big country. We have 50 states. We have all these other people,” Trump said. “We’re fighting wars. We can’t take care of daycare. You got to let a state take care of daycare and they should pay for it, too. They should pay. They’ll have to raise their taxes, but they should pay for it. And we could lower our taxes a little bit to them to make up.”

“It’s not possible for us to take care of daycare, Medicaid, Medicare, all these individual things. They can do it on a state basis. You can’t do it on a federal. We have to take care of one thing: military protection. We have to guard the country. But all these little things, all these little scams that have taken place, all you have to you have to let states take care of them,” Trump continued.

Newspaper clippings

Gleanings from recent entries at Bad Newspaper - a reliable refuge in a world of geopolitical turmoil.\

Beavers as landscape architects

There's nothing fundamentally "new" in this video about beavers being reintroduced into Scotland, but the results are impressive.

Related:  

A "rescue beaver" starts building dams inside a house (3-minute video)

Trailcam video compilation of one year activity on a beaver dam in northern Minnesota (6-minute video)

More than you would ever need to know about beaver testicles (re medieval bestiaries)

"Lunar Grazing Model" - a celestial bovine containment system

Posted at NASA's APOD (Astronomy Picture of the Day) website.   

Related:  Historic footage from the BBC of the Swiss spaghetti harvest (1957):

Whom do you believe?

While the world jumps with joy and the financial markets soar upward on an announcement from Donald Trump that productive peace talks are underway, this screencap is from Al Jazeera this morning.

Could be empty rhetoric from their side... or perhaps both sides are just reloading their weapons.  Commodity traders must be having conniption fits.  And people with inside information are making immense profits from this volatility.

"Funeral bread" explained

Cinnamon bread. Cheez Whiz. Green olives.

These are the sole ingredients of a potluck offering that’s popular in some parts of Minnesota and North Dakota. Some people use breads with a little less flair, like pumpernickel or rye, but the cinnamon version has its die-hard fans, especially in Roseau, Minn...

“When you go to our local grocer — we only have one in town — on the Super One display is fresh baked, in-house cinnamon swirl bread with a pyramid of Cheez Whiz displayed next to it,” said Sinnamon Krings, Roseau promotions director. “To someone not from here you might wonder why but to a local it’s as common as peanut butter and jelly.”

Those who love the combination are often nostalgic about it and remember eating it as a kid after church services or funerals. In some circles, it’s called “funeral bread.”..

The company debuted Cheez Whiz in 1952, first in Britain, where Kraft marketed it as an easy way to make the sauce for Welsh rarebit.  When the product landed on U.S. supermarket shelves the next year, Kraft already had the perfect way to introduce it to shoppers — on the company-sponsored television program Kraft TV Theatre... On Sept. 8, Sasser wrote that during that week’s program, Kraft TV Theatre demonstrated a recipe that is very close to funeral bread: Melba toast spread with Cheez Whiz and topped with sliced olives. Could this be the dish’s origin?

This may have been a standard sandwich in northwestern Minnesota, but not where I grew up in the southern part of the state.  The closest sandwich to this that I can remember eating regularly from the 1950s used cream cheese and olives (not Cheez Whiz), and we ate it on puffy white slices of Wonder Bread, not cinnamon toast.  

But this "funeral bread" looks yummy  I'll give it a try.

Image credit Erica Pearson via the Minnesota Star Tribune.

Horrific and incredible tweet by Trump

I am so very very very tired of posting war-related matters on TYWKIWDBI, but this turn of events cannot go unmentioned.  The embeds above are copypasted from Facebook.

The tweet by Trump is real and accurate.  I saw it displayed this morning on Bloomberg television's "Opening Bell" segment, accompanied by an excerpt of a video of Trump being interviewed on a plane in which he says talks with Iran are going "very well" but they are difficult because after we talk with people "we negotiate with them but then we have to keep blowing them up." (!!!)

The response by Alt National Park Service is to my knowledge correct.  These threats by Trump may be just "jawboning" and empty rhetoric, similar to the Iranian boasts that they would incinerate America "boots on the ground."  It is my understanding that since taking office, Trump has replaced the top brass i the Joint Chiefs of Staff with men who are more hawkish, but I believe seasoned warriors would be hesitant to implement war plans that are internationally-recognized war crimes.

The stock market opened up this morning in response to weekend claims that "talks are underway," perhaps referring to third-party talks hosted by Pakistan.  I took this morning's upward move as an opportunity to add to my bearish positions.

"The Life List"

(I'll write a proper review later.  Today I'm in a hurry to get gardening and other things done, but didn't want to leave the blog with war stuff at the top, so this is a complete change of direction.  Highly recommended for those who enjoy quiet, pleasant movies during times of global catastrophes).

Details and comparisons later.  I think it's on Netflix; if not, the DVD may be in your library...

Mispronouncing Henry David Thoreau's last name

As reported by The New York Times -

It turns out that the accent does not belong on the second syllable, as in “merlot” or “Poirot.” It rests on the first syllable, like “thorough” — as in, “I am thoroughly confused by this strange turn of events.”

This front-loaded pronunciation has apparently always been there, hiding in plain sight in the halls of academe, even if no one told us about it. “There is a consensus that “THU-ro” is the correct way to pronounce it,” John J. Kucich, co-president of the nonprofit Thoreau Alliance, said in an interview. “But somehow “Thu-RO” — here Kucich uttered the word the common way — “got into the culture, and it’s in the water to pronounce it that way.”..

“People aren’t used to seeing that name; it’s not a New England name, and they pronounced it THU-ro” she said in an interview. So did the man himself, judging from ample contemporary evidence.

For instance, there’s an 1860 journal entry from Thoreau’s neighbor Bronson Alcott, the father of Louisa May Alcott. “Comes Thoreau and sups with us,” Alcott wrote. “He is rightly named Thorough … the pervading Thor, the sturdy sensibility and force in things.”

And in a 1918 letter from Edward Emerson, son of Thoreau’s friend Ralph Waldo Emerson: “We always called my friend Thórow, the h sounded, and accent on the first syllable,” he wrote...

(Both pronunciations are actually technically incorrect, at least from the French perspective, he adds; the proper French pronunciation would be “tu-row,” with the “th” pronounced as a hard T and an accent on neither syllable.)

The Houthis (Yemen) enter the war

As reported in The Guardian:

The US-Israeli war with Iran has expanded with the entry of Houthi forces in Yemen, representing a dangerous spread of the conflict and bringing with it the threat of more damage to the global economy...

Multiple outlets reported that the Houthis, the Iran-aligned militant group in Yemen, had attacked Israel for a second time in less than 24 hours, after joining the war on Saturday.

Despite US claims to have devastated Iran’s military, Reuters cited intelligence sources as saying Washington could only be certain it had destroyed a third of Iran’s missile and drone arsenal.

US media reported that a missile and drone attack on Prince Sultan airbase in Saudi Arabia wounded at least 12 US soldiers, two of them seriously. Drones also struck Kuwait international airport on Saturday, causing significant damage to its radar system...

The entry of the Houthis, who control Yemen’s most populous areas, poses a direct threat to the Bab al-Mandab strait at the southern end of the Red Sea, a second major choke point in the supply chain of energy supplies and other trade in and out of the Middle East.

With Iran’s near total closure of the strait of Hormuz, a shutdown of the Bab al-Mandab, located between Yemen and the Horn of Africa, would amplify the already grave impact of the war on the global economy, and could also reignite a Saudi-Yemen conflict that caused huge humanitarian suffering for seven years before a 2022 truce.

Since the US-Israeli attack on Iran on 28 February, Saudi Arabia has been able to divert some of its oil exports by pipeline to the Red Sea. Saudi commentators have said that if this route was also threatened, Riyadh could also enter the war directly.

More at the link.  And more re the Houthis.

I think it's clear to anyone not relying on U.S. news sources that this war is not winding down anytime soon.   The Trump/Netanyahu preemptive attack on Iran has unleashed longstanding grievances in the Middle East.   Some readers here will be old enough to remember the Iran/Iraq war in the 1980s that resulted in 500,000 deaths.  Now the Saudis are encouraging Trump to strike a definitive blow.  Yemen may have the capability of significantly impairing access to the Red Sea/Suez Canal.  The Kurds are being encouraged to join the regional assault.  Iran will attack its Gulf neighbors who are assisting the U.S. and they know that impairing oil transport through the Strait of Hormuz will severely hurt European economies, putting pressure on the U.S. not to proceed with a land war.  The U.S. is no longer in a position to "declare victory and go home."  I've heard more than one analyst say that "when you kick a hornet's nest, the hornets decide when it's over."

And where does Iran get the resources to continue the war after sustaining so much damage from aerial bombinb?  Probably from Russia, which is treating this as a "proxy war" and is accumulating immense wealth from its oil reserves (including potentially selling to Europe!), which it can use to resume its assault on Ukraine.  China also has vast oil reserves stored and has military capacities probably equal to the United States.  Any involvement by them so far appears to be deeply behind the scene.

Informed discussion of the advice "never to get involved in a land war in Asia."

Word for the day:  "Clusterfuck" is a vulgar slang term for an extremely chaotic, disorganized, or severely mismanaged situation, often where multiple things go wrong simultaneously. Originating as U.S. military slang in 1969, it describes a "total mess" or "shitshow". It is sometimes used to describe a complex, messy, and unproductive endeavor.

"The Remains of the Day" (1993)

This classic movie was released in 1993, fifteen years before I started this blog, so I've never reviewed it here.  But after re-watching it last evening, I feel the trailer should be saved in TYWKIWDBI as a heads-up for any readers who may not have been paying attention to movies 30 years ago.

The movie is a Merchant-Ivory production, presenting an extended and often sympathetic character study of one man's obsessive devotion to his life's work - serving the grand house where he is employed, and serving his master (however defective), at a cost of his family life and his personal life.

The movie was nominated for eight Academy Awards (Best Picture, Actor, Actress, Director, Screenplay, Costume, Music, and Art Direction), and Hopkins won the BAFTA that year.  But be aware that this is not a "fun" movie, with a happy Hollywood ending.  Its power lies in the absolutely superb acting of Anthony Hopkins and Emma Thompson.  

Puffer jacket stuffed with pickles

The product is offered by the United Kingdom division of Kentucky Fried Chicken to promote their marketing of pickle-enhanced foods (Pepsi, french fries).  Personally, I'd prefer stuffing my half of my jacket with olives, but everyone has different tastes.  

Image cropped for size from the original at the Neatorama via.

It may cost you more to return a rental car early

From the travel section of the New York Times:

"Last summer, I flew to Geneva, Switzerland, and picked up a rental car from Budget for a two-week vacation in neighboring France. More precisely, I reserved the car for 13 days and four hours, for an estimated 866 Swiss francs, worth about $1,060 at the time. I ended up returning the vehicle not just on time but a little earlier than planned — after 13 days and 30 minutes — so imagine my surprise when the final bill came to 1,545 francs. The lion’s share of the difference was in the base rental rate, so I assume I lost my discount for returning the car early. I’ve heard of car rental companies recalculating rates for returning a weeklong rental a day early, but hours? That is ridiculous."

The explanation:

The car rental industry is notorious for charging customers for services they do not need or sometimes never agreed to, but collecting what amounts to a $595 fee for bringing back a car a few hours early seems beyond the pale.

Even more astonishingly, perhaps, is that after examining the documentation you sent me and combing through Budget’s policies, I now believe it was not even a question of hours. You could have saved $595 by returning the car just 10 minutes later than you did...

“Because the vehicle was returned earlier than the 14-day period, the rental no longer qualified for the weekly promotional pricing,” Lauren Bristow, the director of marketing communications for Avis Budget Group, wrote in response to my emailed questions. “As a result, the system recalculated the rental at the applicable shorter-term rate.”

And I’ll admit that Budget’s “General Conditions of Rental” (Part 12, if you’re following along) does back her up. “Because special offers and discounts often relate to specific time slots,” it reads, “you may even end up having to pay more if you bring back the vehicle early.”

Offered without comment.

Word for the day: kerning

In typography, kerning is the process of adjusting the space between two specific characters, or letterforms, in a font... The term "keming" is sometimes used informally to refer to poor kerning (the letters r and n placed too closely together being easily mistaken for the letter m).

More information at Kerning, spacing, leading: the invisible art of typography.

Reconsidering Rapa Nui (Easter Island)

Rapa Nui (Easter Island) is a UNESCO World Heritage site because of its monumental statues (moai).  For several hundred years it has captured the public's imagination because of its mind-staggering physical remoteness and the seemingly incredible feat of humans locating and colonizing the island, located 2,000 miles from the nearest island in East Polynesia:

Island at the Edge of the World: The Forgotten History of Easter Island is a new book recently acquired by our library system, which I borrowed after reading that the author offered a new vision of the history of the island.  It is indeed an awesome book, which I have no doubt will become a standard reference citation, but it is probably TMI for the average reader because it examines every single detail about the history of the island, giving new emphasis to original ethnographic research conducted a century ago and debunking many modern interpretations.

"Conventional wisdom" (repeated in pop science articles and television shows) suggests as follows:

"That theory argues that Islanders let their population outgrow their home's capacity to support them.   In the quest for food they overfished the sea and destroyed soils, and in desperate religious tumoil they cut down all the trees to move statues.  Society collapsed in a fit of war and cannibalism.  When Europeans first saw Rapa Nui, it is said, they witnessed the result: a devastated land with few people, who could not have created the island's spectacular archaeological legacy." (xix)  

Thor Heyerdahl speculated and tried to prove that Rapa Nui had been colonized by white people who had crossed the Atlantic, built the South American civilizations and then continued west across the Pacific. 

The book convincingly debunks previous speculations.  The author notes for example that the population was not starving when the first Europeans arrived.  In fact, they offered food to the sailors.  They had an elaborate system for harvesting intermittent rainfall and had developed farming techniques suitable to the terrain.  The state of their society in modern times is in part a reflection of their more recent history:

"Lost in the haunting seduction of this eco-collapse theory was the true history of what the Islanders had endured at the hands of colonial imperialists.  Within a century and a half of having been found by Dutch sailors, Rapa Nui's people had been kidnapped, sold into slavery, killed off by new diseases, and removed to other islands.  They were all but extinguished.  Survivors were housed in a walled settlement, forbidden to return to their traditional homes and gardens and their sacred places, which were overrun by sheep and cattle making money for businesses half a world away.  Their history was written by outsiders who could not credit them with the abilities their monuments revealed... Those abandoned monuments were plundered and restored to make a museum for tourists... Their ancestors were an example to the world of the worst imaginable negligence, of behavior so lacking in respect for life, for the very soils that nurtured their existence, that they brought down their own future in a violent orgy of self-destruction..." (143)

An interesting book to browse.