Imprison the Mediating Translator = Deny Due Process for DHS Targets

Meenu Batra, a courtroom interpreter who was detained by DHS for over six weeks in Texas. - Meenu Batra

This interpreter helped migrants navigate immigration court. Then she was detained by DHS
Zoe Sottile, CNN
Tue, May 26, 2026 

As a courtroom interpreter in Texas’ immigration system, it was Meenu Batra’s job to make sure migrants understood the proceedings of immigration court – the good and the bad.

In March, Batra was exposed to the other side of the immigration system when she was detained by the Department of Homeland Security after decades spent living and working in the United States.

Batra, a mother of four US citizens who transitioned to interpreting in other courtrooms after years spent in immigration court, was detained for more than six weeks – a harrowing experience from which she says she’s still recovering.

She came to the US in 1991, she said, a fragile 18-year-old traumatized by the killing of her parents in a spate of anti-Sikh violence in India. She rejoined her older siblings who were already in the US and applied for asylum.

Batra declined to give details about how she entered the US but was given a final order of removal by an immigration judge in 2000, under President Bill Clinton, according to DHS, her attorney and a judge’s ruling in her current case. But the same day, she was granted withholding of removal, a legal protection similar to asylum that says she cannot be deported to India. The government never appealed that decision, and she was released and spent the last 25 years without any formal interactions with immigration authorities, she says.

That’s until March 17, when she was detained at an airport while on her way to interpret Punjabi for a trial in Milwaukee.

DHS called Batra an “illegal alien” and said she was arrested during a “targeted enforcement operation.”

“We will continue to fight for the removal of illegal aliens who have no right to be in our country,” an agency spokesperson said in a statement when asked for comment about Batra.

The Trump administration has continually said officials are focused on deporting the “worst of the worst,” migrants with serious criminal records. But President Donald Trump’s sweeping deportation campaign has seen people with no or minor criminal records detained for weeks on end or deported, too. Many of them have spent years building lives, careers and families in the US, like Batra, whose attorney said has no criminal record.

Batra said her experience in detention has given her even more insight into the experience migrants face in the American court system. In detention, she said, she fought to help other detainees understand their legal rights and advocate for themselves.

Now she hopes her experience will help highlight the ordinary people detained by DHS – and “how we are denying the basic human rights to people who have been and who are part of this society and this country.”

“I’m just hoping that this brings some attention to those who don’t have a voice,” she said.

Hope for a better life

Batra came to the US like many immigrants do: hoping for a better life.

In 1984, Indian prime minister Indira Gandhi was assassinated by two Sikh bodyguards. The killing prompted organized pogroms against Sikhs across the country. Batra’s parents were among those killed, she says.

“I just became numb” after the killings, she said. When she came to the US, “I was leaving everything that was familiar to me, my friends. I didn’t get much chance to say goodbye to many of them.”

Batra spent a few years living on the East Coast before relocating to Texas in 2002. It was in the Lone Star State she first took advantage of her language skills and began working as an interpreter. She lived just 30 minutes from the US-Mexico border, where there were several DHS detention centers – and, she discovered, a need for interpreters of South Asian languages.

Batra with her children. - Meenu Batra

Her first experiences working in immigration court were disorienting enough that she considered quitting outright. “You have to go through security. It was always nerve-wracking,” she said. “And then you see the detainees coming. Sometimes they will be in chains. And you wonder, ‘Why are they in chains?’”

But she came to see the importance of making sure migrants were able to understand the proceedings and meaningfully participate in their own cases. “It was always satisfying when I was able to give them good news,” she said.

She became the only certified Hindi, Punjabi and Urdu courtroom interpreter in all of Texas, she said, and interpreted for countless immigration cases before transitioning to work in district and state courts just before Trump took office for his first term. Her work as an interpreter instilled a deep sense of respect for the American legal system, she said, a feeling that “there’s a right way to do things, and that’s exactly what I’ve been trying to do for 35 years.”

Falling ‘into a black hole’

When Batra was arrested at Valley International Airport in Harlingen, Texas, she said she felt like she was falling “into a black hole.”

“Fear” and “numbness” poured through her body as an officer asked her to step outside of the Transportation Security Administration line and later handcuffed her outside the airport.

And on her mind, too, was the Milwaukee jury trial for which she was hired to interpret: “It had never happened before that I was ever late for my work, and now I’m going to be a no-show,” she remembers thinking. The scarcity of certified interpreters of South Asian languages across the US often leads Batru to travel out of state for work.

Until she arrived at the detention center, she had kept a hope that “this was just a big mistake” – that officers would look at her Real ID and her work authorization documents and let her go.

Instead, she was processed at the El Valle Detention Center in Raymondville, Texas, where she would spend 45 “long, strange days.”

Batra’s attorney, Deepak Ahluwalia, said he believed she was targeted at the airport based on the flight’s manifesto. He cited a Reuters review of internal Immigration and Customs Enforcement data that found TSA shared over 31,000 traveler records with ICE for immigration enforcement, leading to over 800 arrests. DHS didn’t respond to questions from CNN about whether TSA shared her information with ICE but repeated Batra was targeted for being in the US “illegally,” putting the word in bold in its reply.

The process of being arrested, processed and detained was “humiliating,” Batra said.

“You just become smaller and smaller with each moment. Even way before I was in a cell, you start feeling imprisoned already.”

As a fluent English speaker who understood immigration laws from her years spent working as a courtroom interpreter, Batra said she saw herself as a person of “privilege” in the detention center, with a responsibility to help other detainees understand their rights and advocate for themselves. Some detainees had been behind bars for years, she said.

Because she was granted withholding of removal to India, Batra said, she was scared she would be deported to a conflict-ridden country to which she had no ties – like South Sudan or Congo, to which the US has deported people.

A federal judge ruled the administration’s practice of third-party deportations unlawful in February. The State Department, which negotiates agreements for countries to accept third-country deportees from the US, has broadly defended the practice, according to The Associated Press.

‘A new reality’

In the days after she was detained, Batra called her adult daughter – a challenging reversal of her usual role as a single mom who prided herself on providing support and stability for her children – who quickly hired an immigration lawyer to fight for her mother’s release. The legal team filed on March 26 a petition for habeas corpus, a form of relief whose use has skyrocketed in immigration cases since Trump took office again.

Federal judge Rolando Olvera granted Batra’s request for a temporary restraining order on April 30, ordering DHS to release her and not detain her again “until they have provided her with notice of the reasons for re-detention and an opportunity to respond.”

The judge wrote that Batra “was arrested and detained for no discernible reason, with no identified change in circumstance bearing on the likelihood of removal.”

Batra said she didn’t quite believe she was really free until her daughter was driving her away from the detention center. She broke down crying – the culmination of weeks spent away from her family.

The temporary restraining order preventing Batra from being detained is set to expire May 27. Ahluwalia, her attorney, says he expects the habeas petition will be ruled in their favor, keeping Batra out of detention.

But the ramifications of her detention are long-lasting. Batra said her daughter has struggled to sleep through the night in the days since her mother returned home. She jumps when a car passes on the street out of fear that “somebody is coming to get mom,” said Batra.

“It’s a new reality we’re living in,” she said. Living close to the border, DHS vehicles and officers are a frequent sight – and a potent reminder of Batra’s ordeal and her still uncertain future.

One of Batra’s sons joined the military months before her detention, which may provide a pathway for the interpreter to pursue a green card through the parole-in-place program, according to Ahluwalia.

Ahluwalia said he was “shocked” by the government’s efforts to detain and deport Batra. “I do believe that we need to bring, you know, compassion and the human element back to immigration enforcement,” he said. “Otherwise, we’re going to lose ourselves.”

Batra, meanwhile, said she has kept her faith in America’s ideals.

The country “is based on people who want to work hard, and that is a fundamental human right — that we can dream and make attempts to live a better life for ourselves,” she said.

“I believe we must stand up for those ideals, to protect those and to make sure that they are there for other generations that are coming.”

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Ireland Leads the Way to Justice for Palestine

It's a very good first step toward holding the Zionist barbarians accountable for their ongoing rape of Palestine.

But Ireland and the EU at large should consider listing the various settler organizations and those that raise funds for them in Europe and the Americas as TERRORIST ORGANIZATIONS. These criminal organizations are killing and terrorizing the indigenous Palestinians out of their lands in order to steal the land for more illegal terrorist settlements. 

Zionist terrorism was also how Israel was created in the 1930s and 1940s, with sheer terror targeting Palestinian villages and towns by such notorious Zionist terrorist organizations as Haganah, Stern Gang-Lehi Group, Irgun and others (for more see: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Zionist_political_violence, or
ask AI: "zionist terror organizations 1940s".

By driving hundreds of thousands of indigenous Palestinians out of their lands and villages, the Zionist terrorists managed to clear enough Palestinian lands on which they created their artificial state of Israel. These refugees ands their descendants continue to live in squalid refugee camps - both inside Palestine in Gaza and the West Bank, as well as outside in Syria, Lebanon, Jordan and Egypt - because Israel refuses to let them back to their country.

The modus operandi of the Zionists is no different from that of the Burmese junta's persecution of the Rohingas, or how the English persecuted the Irish for centuries, or how the Janjawid Arabs are still persecuting the Sudanese Africans of Darfour. 

The Zionists terrorized Palestine through a coordinated scorched-earth campaign orchestrated by a hypocrite British government that promised Palestine to the Zionists - actually it sold Palestine to wealthy Zionist bankers in exchange for wartime funds - even though it was given (by the League of Nations) a fiduciary mandate over Palestine which was NOT its own to give away.

The Zionist terror campaign aimed at crushing a puny and poorly equipped Palestinian rebellion, and displacing the Palestinian populations from large swaths of the country.
Beginning in the 1920s, the foreign European Zionist militias, armed and directed by British military intelligence, executed systematic attacks that resulted in hundreds of thousands of deaths, the destruction and total erasure of villages, and the displacement of roughly one million people out of their lands. 

Just as they still do, the Zionists coordinated their assaults by first issuing terrifying warnings to the Palestinian villagers and townspeople, prompting these to flee, followed by an invasion of the targeted region by Zionist terror squads which proceeded to burn entire villages and rape and kill those who chose not to leave. To ensure the displaced villagers would never return, the Zionist terror squads deliberately destroyed the basic necessities of life by burning homes, olive groves and fields, poisoning water wells, and looting livestock. This "Israeli independence campaign", culminating in 1948, operated with total impunity, as no Zionist terrorist was ever arrested or prosecuted. When the British realized the magnitude of the horror they were enabling, they became reluctant and began opposing the  Zionist invasion and violence. The Zionists responded by bombing British targets like the King David Hotel that housed the headquarters of the British mandatory authorities or the assassination of the first UN envoy to Palestine, the Swede Count Folke Bernadotte, on September 17, 1948, in Jerusalem. He was killed in an ambush by members of the Stern Gang, a Zionist terrorist group, as his findings and conclusions clearly favored indigenous Palestinian rights against the colonial Zionist terror plans for Palestine.

Nearly one hundred years later, the Zionists continue their rape of Palestine and their ethnic cleansing of the land. Any resistance by the indigenous Palestinians is labeled terrorism, while the rapist Israel continues to claim to be a victim of its own raped victims.

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Ireland to ban goods from Israeli settlements in West Bank by July
Reuters
Tue, May 26, 2026 


Helen McEntee, Minister for Foreign Affairs of Ireland, speaks on the day she attends an EU Foreign Affairs Council in Brussels, Belgium December 15, 2025. REUTERS/Omar Havana

DUBLIN, May 26 (Reuters) - Ireland aims to pass a law curbing goods trade with settlements in the Israeli-occupied West Bank by mid-July with Israel, some U.S. lawmakers and business ‌groups opposing the move, Foreign Minister Helen McEntee said on Tuesday.

Ireland's government, one of the ‌most outspoken critics of Israel's war in Gaza, first promised to sanction Israeli settlements in October 2024. The legislation has since been ​held up by pressure from opposition politicians who aimed to extend the ban also to services trade, on one side, and international company lobbyists seeking to scrap the bill, on the other.

Sources told Reuters last October that the bill was set to be limited to goods. Prime Minister Micheal Martin confirmed that last week ‌and said widening the scope to ⁠services was neither "implementable" nor "viable."

Limiting the bill to goods only will impact just a handful of products imported from Israeli-occupied territories such as fruit that are worth just ⁠200,000 euros ($234,660) a year, Ireland's Central Statistics Office said.

Business groups warned that the wider category of services could pull foreign multinational companies into unworkable sanctions.

"We have consistently advocated for a peaceful solution... but it's very clear from ​the actions ​taken most recently by the Israeli government, but in ​particular the continued increase in settler violence, ‌the escalation in settler violence in the West Bank, the continued violence in Lebanon, that they have no desire to take this particular road," McEntee told reporters.

Israel's far-right governing coalition has enabled a rapid expansion of settlements, with some ministers openly advocating for the annexation of the West Bank.

Settler violence against Palestinians in the Israeli-occupied West Bank has surged since the Gaza war began in October 2023.

McEntee said last week ‌she hoped to pass the law in tandem with ​Belgium, the Netherlands and possibly Slovenia, which have also committed to introducing ​bans. Spain has already introduced similar curbs, ​the only European Union member to so far do so.

A group of U.S. ‌lawmakers wrote to Martin last year, warning that ​passing the bill would damage ​U.S.-Irish relations and impact American companies in Ireland.

Ireland is particularly sensitive to pressure from the U.S. as mainly U.S.-owned foreign multinationals are a major part of the economy and employ around ​11% of Irish workers.

Most of the ‌international community considers Israeli settlements in the West Bank illegal under international law. Israel disputes ​this, citing historical and biblical ties to the area and that they provide strategic ​depth and security.

(Reporting by Padraic Halpin; Editing Chiara Rodriquez)

Trump's Iran War Threat: Force Saudi Arabia into Abraham Accords

We've known it all along: The Iran scarecrow was always intended by the Americans to scare the Gulf Arab "allies" of the US into submission to American imperialism (inherited from the British) and into a forced but fake peace with the Zionist colony in Palestine. The Gulf Arabs, always anxious about losing their superficial, ostentatious and decadent wealth, willingly submitted themselves to American junky imperialism thinking like fools they are being being protected by the US. But now Trump is raising the stakes. He is using his Zionist-instigated Iran war as a direct threat to Saudi Arabia and other reluctant countries to force them into a fake peace with Israel. He doesn't give a hoot about what kind of peace, as long as he can brag about it to his herd of morons back in the US.

 

It turns out that a coerced fake peace with Israel is the ultimate goal of the Zionist-American alliance. On the long term, Israel cannot survive in isolation. But in order to integrate the region in which it violently forced itself, it must engage in relations, trade and the free flow of people and goods. That hasn't yet happened, despite decades of failed attempts. While its "peace agreements" with Jordan and Egypt have been around since the 1980s-1990s, they haven't really made a difference in the isolation experienced by a violent and irascible Zionist colonizer. The only stumbling block to a genuine peace and integration is the question of Palestine, which Israel is slowly eradicating and erasing from the map. Still, the hard-headed morons now leading the US and Israel, think that a signature on a piece of paper is all it takes to bring relief to Israel's isolation. They don't seem to understand the notion that only justice can bring peace, and as long as there is no justice - worse yet, only genocide, ethnic cleansing and extermination - for the Palestinian people, no signature and photo op will make Israel acceptable to the peoples of the region who feel a very deep connection with the Palestinian people.

The climax of Trump's "Iran scarecrow policy" is now taking shape under the banner of the Iran War. One of the unstated objectives of the Iran War appears to consist of forcing the Arab Gulf states, especially Saudi Arabia, down on their knees begging for US protection against the Iranian threat. During the pre-war period, that Iranian threat was more hypothetical than real. But the war has drawn the Gulf States directly into the line of fire, with Iran physically attacking the territory of the increasingly hysterical Arab Gulf states.

Now that the hysteria of the Arab Gulf states is at its peak, Trump and his Zionist handlers believe they have softened their Arab targets enough for the desired harvest: If those Arab Gulf states that have so far resisted signing off on the Abraham Accords, which they condition on the recognition of an independent Palestine, continue to withhold their fake love and friendship for the Zionist colony in Palestine, then the Iran war will continue.

Trump who is himself dying to end the unwinnable war he was dragged into by Netanyahu, now says that any agreement to end the Iran war should include a requirement for several additional countries, including Saudi Arabia and Pakistan, to join the Abraham Accords, the U.S.-mediated agreements from Trump’s first term aimed at normalizing relations with Israel.

Trump's proposal came as the imminent Iran deal faced criticism from fellow Republicans who favor a harder line on Iran, and it could add new diplomatic complications to the negotiations.

Trump said that Saudi Arabia and Qatar should “immediately” sign on, alongside Pakistan, Turkey, Egypt and Jordan, otherwise the Iran war will continue. In effect, Trump is leveraging his war against Iran to force those countries to abandon Palestine once and for all and become slave allies of Israel.  

Bahrain and the United Arab Emirates became the first countries to join the Abraham Accords in 2020.

In one of his latest posts, Trump said, “after all the work done by the United States to try and pull this very complex puzzle together, it should be mandatory that all of these Countries, at a minimum, simultaneously, sign onto the Abraham Accords.”

Trump has long hoped Saudi Arabia would join, but the kingdom has maintained that any normalization deal requires first establishing a clear path for Palestinian statehood. That's also key for Pakistan, which is among the countries that do not have diplomatic relations with Israel.

The president said he brought up the Abraham Accords plan with leaders during negotiations on Saturday. He said he would accept “one or two” countries declining to sign, but said most should be willing. He doesn't care which or how many countries bend the knee, as long as some do, so he can brag about having accomplished something out of this losing Iran war. Egypt and Jordan already formally recognized Israel and have long-standing peace treaties, although these "treaties" are more like permanent ceasefires than actual peace and friendship and open trade with the Zionist colony. 

It may be that during the latest phone conversation between the Zionist War Criminal Benyamin Netanyahu and the convicted felon and twice-impeached Donald Dumb the two agreed to put this new condition on the table, as a way to salvage some benefits from a very unpopular war.

“The invocation of the Abraham Accords at this stage gives an altogether new dimension to the diplomatic and mediatory processes because this issue was not on the agenda,” said Masood Khan, Pakistan’s former ambassador to the United States, pointing to the domestic pressure Trump is facing to strike a favorable deal. In other words, as Trump is contemplating a disastrous retreat from this war out of fear of a crushing defeat in November, he is hoping to show at least some gains for himself and Israel, notably a few pathetic fake peace and normalization agreements with genocidal Israel whose objective is to bury Palestine once and for all.

Thus, as Trump is reaching the end of his rope on the war and his reluctance at walking into the November midterms while prosecuting an unpopular war at home, he is desperately trying to score the ultimate and perhaps only objective of his war, namely to score gains for his Israeli bosses. By making a cessation of the Iran War contingent on forcing these pseudo allies into submission to Israel, Trump has now exposed the real objective of the US-Zionist alliance. 

The Abraham Accords are a set of diplomatic, economic and security agreements between the United Arab Emirates and Bahrain with Israel that were essentially forced by Trump during his first term. The UAE and Bahrain were later followed by such insignificant and Palestine-irrelevant countries like Sudan, Morocco and Kazakhstan.

Democracy Works: Looming Midterms Scare Trump into Bad Iran Deal

Democracy does work, even under duress. The upcoming midterm elections, with a serious likelihood of a crushing defeat for the Great Moron, have slammed the brakes on Trump's idiotic, unplanned, Netanyahu-instigated off-the-cuff war against Iran. The problem for the Great Moron is that he is willing to cave in to Iran's terms because of a time crunch: He thinks that American voters by November would have forgotten about the mismanaged war, AS LONG AS he strikes ANY deal NOW - bad or otherwise - 6 months ahead of the elections. He said it many times, "Time is of the essence", which was for him and not for the Iranians. This way, the candidates he appoints to the GOP-MAGA tickets across the country won't have to answer questions about the war.

Therefore, it looks like the "deal" with Iran would keep that country in control of the most pressing issue, namely the nuclear question which, we were repeatedly told from the start, was the single most important issue for the Great Moron's Zionist whisperers. So, Netanyahu appears to have accepted a less than desirable deal on the nuclear issue, perhaps because Trump begged him to accept a bad deal and avoid a disaster in the November midterms. For more on the chasm now emerging between the Zionist war criminal who pushed the regretful idiot into a war see: https://www.yahoo.com/news/politics/articles/netanyahu-admits-difficulty-influencing-trump-101926304.html

In fact, donkey-eared Marco Rubio yesterday admitted that the "nuclear issue cannot be resolved in 72 hours", which raises the possibility that another two years of negotiations with Iran are in the offing, and perhaps resulting in a deal that would essentially look like Obama's 2015 JCPOA. Which, in turn, demonstrates the reckless, idiotic, reflexive anti-Obama machismo of Trump 1.0 when he walked the US out of the JCPOA. Eleven years later (since 2015) and we are farther behind on preventing Iran from acquiring nuclear capabilities Had the Great Moron stayed in the JCPOA, Iran would have stopped all its uranium enrichment during those eleven years and the JCPOA would be under re-evaluation for an extension.

In other words, Trump's exit from the JCPOA has furthered Iran's race for the nuclear rather than slow it down or stop it. Plus, Trump's war has created a more pressing issue than the nuclear question, namely a new tool of pressure by the Iranians, the Strait of Hormuz, which was not a problem back in 2015. Further negotiations will see the Iranians with more cards than prior to the war.

Good job, Great Moron. I can't wait to see you lifting sanctions and writing a check to the Iranian regime for the billions of dollars of assets it holds that have been blocked as part of the sanctions.

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Why Trump’s possible Iran deal may be almost as divisive as his decision to wage war
Analysis by Stephen Collinson, CNN
Mon, May 25, 2026


US President Donald Trump speaks to the press near the construction site of his proposed ballroom at the White House in Washington, DC, on May 19. - Kent Nishimura/AFP/Getty Images

The best hope for ending a poorly planned war, which started with scant consultation with Congress or the American people, may be an unsatisfactory peace that leaves critical issues to be resolved later and deepens Washington strife.

President Donald Trump has repeatedly said a deal to halt the conflict he chose against Iran is imminent and very close. Each time, his predictions turned out to be wishful thinking or a misreading of Iran’s true intentions.

So it’s no surprise his latest claims that a framework agreement with Tehran is near have been met with skepticism and confusion — nor that both conservative hawks and Democrats seem to believe he’s on the cusp of caving to a bad deal.

Still, diplomatic buzz suggests that an accommodation to reopen the Strait of Hormuz and to ease the US blockade on Iranian ships and ports could be close. Such a breakthrough could be a starting point for talks the administration will try to use to thwart any remaining Iranian nuclear ambitions.

A more concrete agreement beyond the current fragile ceasefire would be welcomed worldwide as it would come with the hope of eventually easing energy and economic crises triggered by the war and Iran’s closure of the strait.

The Iran war, like everything else in Washington, is hostage to bitter politics, entrenched ideologies and politicians seeking to boost their own profiles. The administration’s aggressive refusal to accept criticism over a conflict that seemed to vastly underestimate Iran’s capacity for resistance hasn’t helped.

President Donald Trump walks to the Rose Garden at the White House on May 11. - Kent Nishimura/AFP/Getty Images

It’s worth noting that Trump can’t win politically. Polls show a majority of Americans oppose the war, so he’d face an equal or greater backlash if he ordered new strikes against Iran — a step that would threaten a violent escalation and worse economic pain. But presidents are often tempted to launch new military adventures to save face, or to search for an exit ramp that frequently turns into a quagmire. When they step back, lives can be saved.

Still, the emerging details of a potential agreement with Iran suggest the terms of a peace deal may be beyond even Trump’s capacity to spin into a triumph.

Indications, for instance, that Washington may unfreeze some Iranian assets and gradually dismantle its own blockade to persuade Iran to reopen the strait would effectively validate the leverage the Islamic Republic seized in the war and hand away key US bargaining chips.

Any undertaking from Iran in the memorandum that it will not chase nuclear weapons would be greeted with great reservations in Washington. A proposed period of at least 60 days for negotiations to resolve remaining sticking points on Iran’s nuclear enrichment, including its uranium stockpile, also seems rather compressed given the complexity of the issues. History shows Iran would love to drag the United States into a prolonged period of inconclusive diplomacy that lasts months or years.

Another reason for caution is that it’s not clear that Iran, with an even more opaque system of government after top leaders were killed in the war, will accept any peace deal that the US is apparently willing to offer. There were conflicting messages out of Tehran over the weekend. And Iran’s new leaders seem to believe they won this showdown with the America superpower — even if their economy is reeling and the citizens they repress are facing dire conditions.

Iran’s foreign ministry spokesman, Esmaeil Baghaei, said Monday that a “degree of understanding” had been reached with the US on many issues but that agreement wasn’t imminent. Baghaei also appeared to indicate that Iran would seek to retain some control over the strait, a condition that could be a deal breaker for the US.

Outlines of a proposed deal, meanwhile, fall far short of the “UNCONDITIONAL SURRENDER” that Trump demanded from Iran in March. But he’s under extreme pressure to find some resolution, with gas prices rising, his approval ratings tanking, and his support from congressional Republicans weakening on Iran and other issues.

Republican hawks pressure Trump not to fold

Some Republicans fear Trump may be about to cave.

“Look, we were told about 11 weeks ago by (Secretary Pete) Hegseth and the Department of Defense that they had obliterated Iran’s defenses and it was just a matter of time before we had the nuclear material,” North Carolina Sen. Thom Tillis told CNN’s Jake Tapper on “State of the Union” on Sunday. “Now we’re talking about a posture where we may accept the nuclear material remaining in Iran? How does that make sense at all?”

Sen. Thom Tillis speaks to reporters at the Capitol on April 15. - Andrew Harnik/Getty Images

The US and Israel have made the removal of Iran’s stocks of highly enriched uranium a key war aim. But the casualties that could result from a bid to extract it by force have been prohibitive. And concessions that Iran would demand for handing the material over through diplomacy are likely to be very high.

Movement toward a deal has also drawn the skepticism of Sen. Roger Wicker, who chairs the Senate Armed Services Committee. The Mississippi senator wrote on X on Friday that Trump’s instincts to “finish the job” in Iran had been sound but seeking a deal now would risk “a perception of weakness.”

Trump ally Sen Lindsey Graham on Saturday warned that allowing Iran to press home its advantage by controlling the Strait of Hormuz would shift the regional balance of power.

These arguments have some merit. But it is also not clear how more fighting, on top of the weekslong US-Israeli onslaught on Iran, would have a greater chance of success in breaking Tehran’s resistance.

An Iranian flag flutters in the wind as ships remain anchored on May 16 in the Strait of Hormuz near Larak Island, Iran. - Majid Saeedi/Getty Images

CNN reporting last week cited two sources familiar with US intelligence assessments as saying Tehran had restarted some drone production and was rebuilding certain military capabilities degraded by US-Israeli strikes. This means a resumption of war would risk even more intense and damaging Iranian retaliation against Gulf states, critical infrastructure and US forces than the first bout. An attempt to reopen the strait by force would be potentially dangerous and time-consuming.

Trump is also facing heat from Democrats who criticized him for starting the war, faulted his waging of it, and are now rebuking him over its possible endgame. Their attacks show their party senses that majority opposition to the war among voters might deliver them a midterm victory.

Sen. Cory Booker expressed concern over reports about the sequencing of a deal, starting with the opening of the strait and progressing to later nuclear talks.

“What I’m seeing that has me so outraged right now is the president said he went into this to deal with their nuclear program,” the New Jersey Democrat said on “State of the Union.” “This does not deal with that.”

Booker added: “Donald Trump is being played as a fool that he is for getting us into this in the first place.”

Sen. Chris Van Hollen warned the proposed agreement would “take us back to the prewar status quo” or worse, but hinted that the US may have no choice.

“I think this was a blunder. When you’re digging a hole, you should stop digging, and that sounds like maybe what we’re doing, finally,” the Maryland Democrat said on “Fox News Sunday.”

US Secretary of State Marco Rubio addresses a joint press conference in New Delhi on May 24. - Julia Demaree Nikhinson/AFP/Pool/Getty Images

Secretary of State Marco Rubio hit back at criticisms of the potential deal during a trip to India. “The idea that somehow this president, given everything he’s already proven he’s willing to do, is going to somehow agree to a deal that ultimately winds up putting Iran in a stronger position when it comes to nuclear ambitions is absurd,” he said.

The president seems to have been listening to concerns he’s about to sign up for a dud. “I have informed my representatives not to rush into a deal in that time is on our side,” he wrote on social media Sunday.

With Memorial Day marking the start of a volatile summer of politics that may decide the midterms, top Republicans stressed that peace could bring a payoff for voters.

Kevin Hassett, the director of Trump’s National Economic Council, told Fox News that a deal would unleash a “gusher” of oil through the strait. “You could actually be looking at negative inflation because of the energy price going down,” he said. And Florida Rep. Byron Donalds, who is running for governor, told Fox that as soon as there was a deal, “those oil prices will be tumbling down and gas prices with it here in the United States.”

Many analysts, however, warn that the recovery from the closure of the strait, which left scores of tankers stuck in the Gulf for weeks, will not immediately improve global economic prospects or affordability in the US. JPMorgan analysts, for example, expect oil to average $97 a barrel throughout the rest of the year.

President Donald Trump walks as he arrives at Morristown Airport in New Jersey on May 22. - Brendan Smialowski/AFP/Getty Images

Two critical questions Trump must answer

As more details become public about the proposed deal, Trump will face several critical questions. First, will his eventual agreement be more watertight than former President Barack Obama’s pact, which was negotiated with Iran and major world powers in 2015? That deal cut off Tehran’s multiple paths to nuclear weapons and included strict and constant verification.

Second, has Trump’s trashing of that deal — and a war that has taken 13 American lives in combat, closed down the Gulf region, cost billions of dollars, and likely killed hundreds of Iranians — put the United States in a better position with regard to Iran?

That this is even a question underscores Trump’s dilemma: Restarting the war could have grave political and economic consequences. Ending it on the best available terms may be almost as problematic and unpopular. 

[LI: That's what happens when you elect an idiot, because the idiot can be manipulated by criminals like Netanyahu into stupid policies and actions].

Trump's Wishlist for More White Immigration into US

Donald Dumb is allowing tens of thousands of white Afrikaners from South Africa to immigrate into the US, supposedly because they are persecuted by the indigenous Africans now in power after the end of apartheid.

The Great Moron is not only interested in increasing the numbers of whites in an America destined to become majority non-white in the not-so-distant future. He is hoping that these Afrikaners, imbibed through centuries of colonial brutality into white supremacy, would also swell the numbers of American neo-Nazi white supremacists, collectively known as MAGA. The Afrikaner colonial settlers who stole the land from the native Africans have been steeped into racism and hatred and would be excellent candidates for Donald Dumb's MAGA universe.

Assuming these are the main two criteria for Donald Dumb's preference for white neo-Nazi immigrants into the US, here are some suggestions for the future.

White Europeans are no longer interested in immigrating to the US, what with their higher standards of living and their proclivity for being open-minded, educated and civilized. With the aging of their populations, falling natality and diminished workforce, they have been taking in otherwise unwanted immigrants from poorer, less white and Muslim cultures. Some in Europe are fearing a Great Replacement conspiracy that aims to "darken" the European continent and Islamize it.

Hence, to correct some of these failings, it might be time for Europeans to consider a reverse migration from the New World back to the Old World. The EU should open its doors to young white Christian immigration from North America and Latin America. Just as the US is welcoming white neo-Nazi immigrants from South Africa, the EU should also welcome white neo-Nazi Americans from the MAGA and Republican throngs who feel angry, disgruntled and disadvantaged in the US. Wouldn't it be sublime if the descendants of white European colonizers of the American continent were to head back and rescue the countries of origin of their parents and ancestors from the brown Hispanic and Muslim invasions under way? 

Of course, the problem is in the makeup of those white Americans who are for the most part bastards of many races, ethnicities and religions, which makes it difficult to ascertain whether these American candidates for immigration are true genetic whites. But since racism is based on the utterly stupid and superficial criterion of skin color, all it would take a European consular officer in Boston, Atlanta, Chicago, Dallas or Los Angeles to decide on the eligibility of a white American immigrant is one brief look - a glance - at the candidate and check a yes or a no on the application form. If the candidate "looks" white, then he is admitted. No need for complicated genealogies or bureaucratic paperwork.

When asked about their origins, United Statesian Americans generally give you a long list of countries their ancestors came from. Since they cannot be sure, they thrown in more desirable origins and ignore the less desirable ones. For example, you'll hear such statements as "Scandinavian, English, Italian and German", but leave aside "African, Asian or Arab". Now, those whose appearance suggests a genetic background from the racially inferior latter rather than from the racially superior former, they will "enhance" their origin by adding "Native American" (i.e. American Indian), which in their mind confers upon them the "authentic" they think they lack, even though such an ascendancy conjures up stories of rapes of native Americans by white European settlers. 

Others, particularly along the East Coast and New England elites, would even boost their authenticity by including among their ancestors pilgrims from the Mayflower ship that landed in Plymouth, Massachusetts, or the Susan Constant that landed in Jamestown, Virginia in the early 1600s. 

I therefore strongly urge the Europeans to begin rescuing the whites of all the American continent, north and south, who will in time risk to be swamped by non-white immigrants from shithole countries and by a resurgent and vengeful nationalism of the colonized indigenous populations, especially in Central and South America. Although American whites are generally uneducated and dumb, they are very Christian and hard-working. They will truly begin a rebirth of the colonial white Old Continent and serve as a counterweight to the invading hordes of dark Muslims and Asians.

Finally, the Europeans and the Americans should also seriously consider rescuing the white colonial settlers of Palestine from the hatred and persecution they suffer at the hands of the indigenous Arabs and Muslims of the Middle East. These "Zionist" settlers have tried, albeit with brutality and violence, to integrate and become an authentic middle eastern country, but their efforts over the past century cannot be considered successful. They, like the neo-Nazi South African Afrikaners, tried to civilize the indigenous Blacks of South Africa, have tried to civilize the indigenous Arabs of Palestine, but to no avail. 

Benjamin Netanyahu, the Zionist leader, has over and over reminded his Western American and European relatives that his Zionist colony in Palestine is an outpost of western civilization amidst a savage hodge-podge of violent and irascible Muslim Arabs who have no tolerance for white colonial settlers who steal their land and commit an otherwise beneficial civilizing genocide and ethnic cleansing of the natives.  

Therefore, Just as Donald Dumb is rescuing the poor neo-Nazi south African Afrikaners suffering from the indigenous Black African majority, he should rescue the Fascist Zionist Israelis of Palestine whose suffering and rejection at the hands of the native indigenous Palestinians has become unbearable. Israelis appear to be condemned ad aeternum to a life of constant fear, in a state of constant alert, and on a perpetual footing of war. Their suffering should end. Donald Dumb should open wide the gates of immigration to all the white Jewish colonists and settlers of Palestine. They, like the white Afrikaner settlers and colonists of South Africa, would swell the ranks of the Judeo-Christian white supremacists of the United States and be a counterweight to the demographic time bomb of the ongoing Hispanic invasion of north America. By substantially reducing the white western Zionist footprint in Palestine and the Middle East at large, the chronic tensions, wars and conflicts would be significantly reduced and peace will be finally ushered in that tormented part of the world. 

Donald Dump can then rightfully claim the Nobel Peace Prize.

MAGA Allies Cruz & Graham: Purported Iran Deal is a Trump Failure

As often argued in these pages, Trump's "deal" with Iran looks like a dud, plus-or-minus closer to Obama's JCPOA (Joint Comprehensive Plan of Action), except Obama reached his without a war and with the consensus of allies.

MAGA morons, especially Ted Cruz from the backward state of Texas, have smelled the stench of a Trump retreat on Iran and are not happy. Remember when Trump, during his first administration, raised hell about NAFTA (1994 North American Free Trade Agreement between US, Mexico and Canada), which he labeled in his explicit and sophisticated English language as a "bad deal" for the US ? He then re-negotiated it (USMCA) in 2020 with barely a gain in it. He never mentioned it again. USMCA maintained NAFTA's free trade zone intact among the three nations but introduced slightly modified rules for the automotive industry, labor standards, and intellectual property, all of which have been trashed by his tariffs.

Trump is doing the exact same thing with Obama's JCPOA. He went to war and promoted the big lie about an imminent nuclear threat that justified going to war, spending billions, disrupting international trade and oil supplies, promising to wipe Iran off the map and completely eliminate its nuclear program.

Now, terrified at the crushing defeat he faces in the November midterms, he is beginning to retreat on Iran. He is running out of time and is increasingly desperate. The "new deal" he is bragging about today looks more like an appeasement of MAGA's domestic wrath because the dumb jackass promised "no foreign wars" during his campaign.

Even his diehard MAGA morons, like Ted Cruz, are upset at what they see coming on Iran: A big cowardly retreat to something more or less like Obama's JCPOA. This is what Cruz posted yesterday:

“If the result of all that is to be an Iranian regime—still run by Islamists who chant ‘death to America’—now receiving billions of dollars, being able to enrich uranium & develop nuclear weapons, and having effective control over the Strait of Hormuz, then that outcome would be a disastrous mistake,”

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Ted Cruz, Trump ally battle online over criticism of Iran deal
Sophie Brams
Sun, May 24, 2026 




Sen. Ted Cruz (R-Texas) sparred with one of President Trump’s outside advisers on social media Saturday after indicating he was “deeply concerned” about the terms of an emerging deal between the U.S. and Iran.

“I am deeply concerned about what we are hearing about an Iran ‘deal,’ being pushed by some voices in the administration,” Cruz wrote on the social platform X.

Trump announced earlier in the day that a peace agreement with Tehran had been “largely negotiated” and would include reopening the Strait of Hormuz, but offered few details otherwise.

“Final aspects and details of the Deal are currently being discussed, and will be announced shortly,” Trump wrote on Truth Social.

He notably made no mention of what would happen with Iran’s nuclear program or its stockpile of highly enriched uranium, which had long been a sticking point in stalled negotiations. Senior Trump administration officials justified the initial strikes in late February by claiming the country posed an imminent nuclear threat to the U.S.

Cruz called that February decision “the most consequential” of Trump’s second term, arguing it had achieved “extraordinary military results,” including the purported destruction of Iran’s missiles, drones and navy.

“If the result of all that is to be an Iranian regime—still run by Islamists who chant ‘death to America’—now receiving billions of dollars, being able to enrich uranium & develop nuclear weapons, and having effective control over the Strait of Hormuz, then that outcome would be a disastrous mistake,” the senator wrote.

His criticism echoed that of several other hawkish Senate Republicans who also argued on Saturday that any deal that allows the current Iranian regime to remain in power could embolden them — a rare moment of discord between the president and his usually steadfast GOP allies.

That assessment did not sit well with Alex Bruesewitz, an outside adviser who was the architect of Trump’s podcast strategy in the 2024 presidential campaign.

“Cool, Ted. No one asked you, bro,” Bruesewitz responded on X, accusing Cruz of trying to undermine the president and his administration.

“Hush, child. The adults are talking,” Cruz shot back. “I’m not your ‘bro.’ And young political grifters pushing Iran appeasement are not remotely helping the President.”

Bruesewitz labeled the Texas Republican a “clown” in a separate post, saying he had “zero clue” what is in the deal.

“Ted is a do-nothing Senator rushing out ahead of the potential deal because he’s already positioning for 2028 and plans to use this as a wedge against our candidate,” he wrote. “The deal could be the greatest deal in the world (which it might be!) and he would still complain about it.”

The proposed deal framework would officially declare an end to the nearly three-month conflict and establish 60 days of negotiation on Iran’s nuclear program, a regional official with direct knowledge of the Pakistan-led mediation efforts told The Associated Press.

It would also see the Strait of Hormuz reopened and the U.S. lift its naval blockade of Iranian ports, according to the outlet.

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Even Lady Lindsey Graham of the equally backward state of Georgia is upset at the Iran deal:

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GOP Sens. Lindsey Graham, Roger Wicker blast reports of 60-day ceasefire deal with Iran
Finya Swai
Sat, May 23, 2026

Key Senate Republicans are raising concerns about a reported peace deal being negotiated with Iran, arguing it would be a disaster for the United States that would make meaningless the war launched by President Trump nearly three months ago.

“The rumored 60-day ceasefire — with the belief that Iran will ever engage in good faith — would be a disaster,” Sen. Roger Wicker (R-Miss.), the chairman of the Senate Armed Services Committee, wrote in a post on social platform X.

He said the effects of the joint military operation between the U.S. and Israel titled “Operation Epic Fury” would “be for naught” if the deal as he understood it went forward.

Sen. Lindsey Graham (R-S.C.), a close ally of President Trump who for years has pushed for U.S. military action against the Iranian regime, said a premature deal could fundamentally shift the balance of power in the Middle East in Iran’s favor.

“If a deal is struck to end the Iranian conflict because it is believed that the Strait of Hormuz cannot be protected from Iranian terrorism and Iran still possesses the capability to destroy major Gulf oil infrastructure, then Iran will be perceived as being a dominate force requiring a diplomatic solution,” Graham wrote Saturday in a post on X.

The South Carolina Republican added that such a perception would become a “nightmare for Israel” over time, questioning the rationale behind the war entirely.

He also noted his skepticism that Iran could be denied the ability to threaten global oil supply by blocking the Strait of Hormuz again in the future.

“I personally am a skeptic of the idea that Iran cannot be denied the ability to terrorize the Strait and the region cannot protect itself against Iranian military capability,” he wrote, adding: “It is important we get this right.”

The criticisms from the two GOP senators was remarkable given the GOP Senate has generally avoided stark criticism of Trump.

The comments from both men came before President Trump announced a deal with Iran was close.

“An Agreement has been largely negotiated, subject to finalization between the United States of America, the Islamic Republic of Iran, and the various other Countries,” Trump wrote in a post on Truth Social, adding that final details of the deal will be “announced shortly.”

Trump offered no details of the deal, but a regional official with direct knowledge of the Pakistan-led mediation efforts told The Associated Press that the potential deal would officially declare an end to the war and establish a 60-day period of negotiations on Iran’s nuclear program.

The concerns from Graham and Wicker seemed largely related to Iran’s nuclear program. The deal being discussed does not seem to include any specific comments from Iran on its nuclear program, though Trump and U.S. officials have long said preventing Iran from getting a nuclear weapon is a reason for the war.

According to a report in The New York Times, Tehran had agreed to stop the fighting on all fronts, including in Lebanon, where the Iranian-backed group Hezbollah has been fighting Israel. The Times, citing three Iranian sources, also said the deal would re-open, without tolls, the Strait of Hormuz, a key for Trump as it could gradually offer relief on sky-high gas prices in the U.S. that has led to mounting political pressure on the GOP. The Times said the deal would also end the U.S. blockade on Iranian ports.

The Times added it was not clear the deal referred to by its sources was the same one Trump described in his Truth Social post.

The prospect of a deal had been foreshadowed by developments over the last day.

Wicker on Friday also offered a message that indicated he was wary of what he was hearing on the negotiations. He wrote in a Friday post on X that it would be “ill advised” to pursue a deal.

“Further pursuit of an agreement with Iran’s Islamist regime risks a perception of weakness,” he wrote in a post on X Friday. “We must finish what we started.”

Trump announced Friday he would not be attending his son Donald Trump, Jr.’s wedding, and the White House said he would be in Washington, not in Mar-a-Lago, where he frequently travels on weekends. Trump indicated he was not going to the wedding because of his presidential duties and specifically mentioned Iran.

Former Secretary of State Mike Pompeo, who served in that role in the first Trump administration, also harshly criticized what he understood as the deal. He wrote in a post on X that it sounded as if it had been negotiated by officials working for the Obama administration. Both Trump and Pompeo have criticized the Iran deal negotiated by that administration as being too weak.

The deal being floated is “Not remotely America First,” Pompeo wrote.

He said any effective deal would be “straightforward.”

“Open the damned strait. Deny Iran access to money. Take out enough Iranian capability so it cannot threaten our allies in the region. Overdue. Let’s go,” he wrote.

Later on Saturday, White House Communications Director Steven Cheung wrote on X that Pompeo “has no idea what … he’s talking about,” adding that Pompeo is “not read into anything that’s happening.”

The president is facing growing pressure on multiple fronts to take measures to reopen the Strait of Hormuz as Americans face four-year record high gas prices, which hit a national average of almost $4.53 ahead of Memorial Day.

Republicans fear they could lose their House majority in this fall’s elections amid falling approval ratings for Trump, and the Senate majority is also now seen as being within reach of Democrats.

Trump said he discussed Iran’s proposed framework with Israel Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu in a phone call that he described as one that “went very well.”

The Hill has reached out to the White House for comment.

Trump's GOP Slaves are Tired of His Corruption: Midterms Looming?

It may be that they are really tired of his corruption antics or they are fearing their own massive rout in the anti-MAGA landslide projected for the midterms in November. Either case, the GOP-MAGA members of Congress who have licked Trump's boots dry for the past several years have finally remembered they have a spine.
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Republican defiance over 'anti-weaponization' fund sets up confrontation with Trump
By Richard Cowan and Nolan D. McCaskill

May 23, 2026


U.S. President Donald Trump leaves Marine One to board Air Force One en route to Joint Base Andrews, Maryland, as he departs Morristown Airport in Morristown, New Jersey, U.S., May 22, 2026. REUTERS/Kylie Cooper

Some Senate Republicans demand restrictions or elimination of Trump’s $1.776 billion compensation fund

Critics label the money a 'slush fund' and raise concerns over payouts to January 6 rioters
Conflict between Trump and Republican lawmakers could intensify when Congress returns next month
Democrats plan amendments to force difficult votes on the fund for Republicans

WASHINGTON, May 23 (Reuters) - Republicans in the U.S. Congress have revolted over President Donald Trump's $1.776 billion fund for people he says ​were victims of government "weaponization," setting the stage for a searing battle less than six months before midterm elections.

On Thursday, the Senate called timeout on a $72 billion spending bill on immigration enforcement, which ‌has become a battleground over the "anti-weaponization" fund, after many Republican senators demanded that it either be killed or subjected to tough guardrails.

Democrats, meanwhile, have also pledged to use the immigration bill to stage an attack on the fund.
Just one day earlier, Senate Majority Leader John Thune blocked $1 billion in federal funding for a lavish White House ballroom that Trump has already begun building. He said he did not have the Republican votes for it.

On Friday, Trump shot back.

"I am helping others, who were so badly abused by an evil, ​corrupt, and weaponized Biden Administration, receive, at long last, JUSTICE!" the president wrote on his social media platform.
This battle of wills between the president and his party, stoked by recent primary election victories of Trump-endorsed ​challengers over sitting lawmakers, threatens to intensify when Congress returns from recess next month, and could reverberate into the November midterms.

"The American people are going to reject this ⁠out of hand," Republican Senator Thom Tillis of North Carolina said of the anti-weaponization fund, whose beneficiaries could include those convicted in connection with the attack on the Capitol on January 6, 2021.

While many Republican senators were uncharacteristically ​mum coming out of a Thursday meeting on the spending bill, Tillis and others were clear on just how politically unpalatable the president's demands had become.

"(The fund) could potentially compensate someone who assaulted a police officer, admitted their guilt, ​got convicted, got pardoned and now we're going to pay them for that? That's absurd," Tillis, who is not running for reelection, said in a Thursday interview with Spectrum News.

LAWMAKERS MANEUVER OVER 'ANTI-WEAPONIZATION' FUND

Republican Representative Brian Fitzpatrick of Pennsylvania, who faces a tough reelection battle this fall, teamed up with Democratic Representative Tom Suozzi of New York on legislation to prohibit the payment of any claims submitted to the fund.

Retiring Representative Don Bacon of Nebraska said the ballroom and anti-weaponization funds in the immigration spending bill had become "poison ​pills" for House Republicans who face tough reelection campaigns.

With Republicans holding only slim majorities in both houses of Congress, it would only take a handful of defiant lawmakers to defeat Trump's proposals.

But skepticism runs deep that congressional Republicans, who ​until recently have been loyal to the president on matters from tariffs to spending cuts to the Iran war, were ready to break ranks. "We've heard this talk for 10 years now of rebellion and cracks in the coalition. It has never ‌happened," said Doug ⁠Heye, a longtime Republican strategist.

He said Republicans are "constantly capitulating" on matters important to Trump, and that any revolt would be "light years" away.

Many of Trump's backers in Congress, including Republican Representatives Abraham Hamadeh of Arizona and John Rose of Tennessee, have stepped up to defend him. "Not a single congressional Republican was elected to oppose President Trump," Hamadeh posted on X, adding: "Yet an insurgency is already brewing" in the Senate. "STOP slamming the brakes on the America First agenda."

Peter Ticktin, an attorney representing more than 400 January 6 defendants, said he was confident his clients will receive payouts despite congressional pushback. "They're fools if they think this is going to work," Ticktin said of Senate Republicans who oppose the fund. "It's still ​going to go through, and those opposing the fund ​will suffer in future elections."

DEMOCRATS IN CONGRESS WILL ⁠FORCE DIFFICULT VOTES

Meanwhile the Democrats, while largely powerless as the minority party in both houses of Congress, are seizing on what they see as the president's politically tone-deaf proposals. They have contrasted the plight of U.S. consumers struggling amid inflation to pay their bills, with Trump's lavish ballroom plans and the large sums of government money he might direct to the ​January 6 rioters or other allies.

"Is it possible on May 21, 2026, Republicans finally found an ethical bridge too far?" Senator Dick Durbin, the second-highest-ranking member of ​the Democrats' Senate leadership, said ⁠at a Thursday press conference.

Senate Democratic Leader Chuck Schumer on Thursday portrayed Republicans as being in the throes of a "meltdown" over the ballroom and what they call a Trump "slush fund."
One possibility for congressional Republicans after they return from recess on June 1 is to seek some sort of middle ground.

One source familiar with the maneuverings, who asked not to be identified, said there are discussions about proposed guardrails on the fund, such as standards for who would serve on a commission overseeing ⁠it, or requiring ​judicial review of it.

At the very least, Democrats will likely do what they can to force their opponents to cast politically difficult ​votes on amendments to the spending bill.

Democratic Senator Chris Coons of Delaware this week told reporters he had drafted 13 such amendments. One would bar payments to January 6 rioters who assaulted law enforcement at the Capitol, while others would prohibit the use of any taxpayer money ​to make payments, and require all payments to be made public if the fund survives, a spokesperson for the senator said.

Reporting by Nolan D. McCaskill, Richard Cowan, Jacob Bogage and David Morgan; Editing by Michael Learmonth and Edmund Klamann

Zionist Terrorist Itamar Ben-Gvir Banned from European Soil

This is not enough. Punishing Ben-Gvir for mistreating European volunteers on the aid flotilla is a slap on the hand when compared to his Zionist inventory of crimes against thousands of Palestinian villagers being  killed, raped and uprooted from their ancestral villages. For several decades, the international response to Zionist terrorism in Palestine has been slow and timid. Zionist terror squads and settlers have been stealing and confiscating Palestinian lands from way back in the 1990s, in addition to terror raids (burnings, killings, demolitions, uprooting of olive trees...) against innocent Palestinian villagers reeling under a brutal and illegal Israeli occupation that condones settler terrorism.

The EU should declare all Zionist settler terrorist organizations and the Zionist banks and donors that fund their racist policies of genocide and ethnic cleansing as TERRORIST ORGNANIZATIONS. Sanctions should be slapped and products manufactured by Zionists in occupied Palestine be banned from European markets.

The charade of managing Israel's feelings because of the European Holocaust should end. The current generation of European leaders were born way after the Holocaust and the guilt of previous generations has faded. Israel should be treated like any other country. It should be held to the same standards as anyone else. Its nuclear stockpile should be submitted to inspections by international bodies. Israeli exceptionalism is despicable because it has been exploited by ultra-religious barbarians to commit untold crimes against the indigenous Palestinian population and not be held accountable.

Instead of a homeland for Jews, Israel has become a rogue thug of a nation imposing its Fascist supremacist will by sheer violence and brutality. When will the world draw a line?

Ben-Gvir intends to demolish the Al-Aqsa Mosque in Jerusalem and build a Jewish temple in its stead. The ramifications of such a Fascist replacement of one indigenous culture by a foreign colonial invader are incalculable. 

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Israeli minister Ben-Gvir banned from access to French territory
Reuters
Sat, May 23, 2026


Israeli National Security Minister Itamar Ben-Gvir attends his party faction meeting at the Knesset, Israel's parliament, in Jerusalem June 3, 2024 REUTERS/Ronen Zvulun

PARIS, May 23 (Reuters) - France has decided to ban Israel's far-right police minister Itamar ‌Ben-Gvir from access to French territory, ‌Foreign Minister Jean-Noel Barrot said on Saturday, adding that the ​decision reflected growing anger among many governments across the world over the treatment of Gaza flotilla activists.

"As from today, Itamar Ben-Gvir is banned ‌from entering French ⁠territory," wrote Barrot on X.

"Along with my Italian counterpart, I am asking ⁠the European Union to also take sanctions against Itamar Ben-Gvir," he added.

Western governments have voiced ​outrage after ​Ben-Gvir posted a video ​of himself taunting ‌Gaza-bound flotilla activists being pinned to the ground, with some of them later alleging they were physically assaulted in detention.

Ben-Gvir's conduct was rebuked by both Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu and ‌the United States, Israel's ​staunchest ally. Netanyahu said Ben-Gvir's ​conduct was "not in ​line with Israel's values and norms".

The ‌flotilla's activists, whose vessel ​was intercepted ​this week in international waters by Israeli naval forces as they tried to deliver ​humanitarian aid to ‌Gaza, have been subsequently deported from ​Israel following their initial detention.

(Reporting by Sudip ​Kar-Gupta. Editing by Tomasz Janowski)

Typical Ignorant Religious and Conspiracy-Prone MAGA Moron

This moron probably believes the earth is flat, that it is at the center of the universe, that "God" created the universe some 6,000 years ago including dinosaurs (that in reality existed between 245 million years ago and 66 million years ago). But the Creationist morons say that dinosaurs could not embark on Noah's Ark because they were too big and so drowned in the Flood.

That's what is being taught at a majority of "Christian" schools across America that are producing cohorts of dumb Americans who go and vote for who else? The Great Moron Dozy Don.

By the way, this sort of self-inflicted "Christian" American ignorance is a clone of the self-inflicted "Muslim" ignorance instilled by radical Islamist regimes across the Muslim world. The "Biblical Law" that the Texas nitwits are imposing on that backward Christian state is the same as the "Sharia Law" imposed on backward Islamist countries. Slap a turban, an abbaya and a beard on them, and you wouldn't be able to tell the difference between Trump's Evangelicals and the Wahhabis of Saudi Arabia or the Taliban of Afghanistan or the Ayatollahs of Iran.

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Man Berates Artemis II Crew at US Capitol, Accuses Them of Faking Moon Mission: ‘I See Through Your Lies!’
Ahmad Austin Jr.
Thu, May 21, 2026 


Victor Glover, Artemis II

A man showed up at the U.S. Capitol to accost the crew of the Artemis II and accuse them of faking their recent mission to the Moon.

The four astronauts were in space for more than 10 days in a mission that sent them around the moon and back. It was the farthest from Earth any human has traveled in history, with the crew documenting the far side of the Moon and even naming previously unnamed craters on the lunar surface.

The journey, which was streamed live throughout nearly its entire duration, captured the attention of the country and turned the astronauts into celebrities. The four have done countless interviews and were even invited to the White House.

In a viral video published Wednesday, one man was not as thrilled about seeing the crew.

“Stop lying! Stop acting!” the man said just feet away from the crew. “Y'all never went to space!”

Pilot Victor Glover took a quick glance at the man before looking ahead. Christina Koch, one of the mission specialists in the crew, continued looking ahead and never acknowledged him. The other two crew members — commander Reid Wiseman and mission specialist Jeremy Hansen — did the same.

“Follow Jesus! God’s watching you all!” the man continued.

A security member then got between the crew and the man as they walked ahead.

“Stop lying to the public!” he said as Glover looked back and gave him a wave. “Your psyop isn’t working on millions of us! NASA’s a joke! Repent before God, y’all! I see through your lies! I know you never went to space! God’s watching you all!”

Eventually, a staffer told him, “That’s enough,” and prevented him from following the crew.

The post Man Berates Artemis II Crew at US Capitol, Accuses Them of Faking Moon Mission: ‘I See Through Your Lies!’ first appeared on Mediaite.

Incompetent Pete Hegseth Mistook Poland for Germany and Ordered US Troop Reductions

One popular American song captures the ignorant yet proud mindset of the American people in general. "Don't know much about geography, Don't know much about history
Don't know much biology....". Americans are proud to hate knowledge and intellectuals whom they disparage with the "nerd" qualifier. They prefer ignorant empty-headed brutes who play rugby (stupidly misnamed 'football' by Americans) and are traded between clubs like cattle. They even have a saying, "Brawn over Brain".

So, when our senile demented dumb president Trump appointed an equally dumb, but a member of the white trash American nobility, a TV entertainer by the name of Pete Hegseth, to lead the Pentagon and Department of Defense, his only criterion was personal loyalty to the Idiot-in-Chief and not brains or intellect or experience.

So when the alcohol-brained-and-drained Hegseth heard Donald Dumb saying he wants 5,000 US troops out of Germany, he immediately obeyed like the good poodle that he is. But he doesn't know any geography or history, he is a bad listener, and like the other conservative goofball from Texas George W who often confused Australia for Austria, Hegseth confused Poland for Germany and ordered that 5,000 troops not be deployed to Poland instead of removing them from Germany.

And these imbeciles are in charge of the country's military and nuclear arsenal.

The decaying old geezer president Dozy Don is mad at Hegseth for such a monumental mistake.
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Trump Tears Into Hegseth for Targeting Wrong Country
Julia Ornedo
Fri, May 22, 2026



Pete Hegseth apparently created a huge mess for Donald Trump in his rush to keep the 79-year-old president happy.

Insiders have revealed that the defense secretary’s abrupt maneuver to cancel the deployment of U.S. troops to Poland triggered an angry phone call from Trump, who was forced to explain that Poland was not one of the European allies that had earned his wrath.

Hegseth, 45, blindsided officials on both sides of the Atlantic last week when he canceled the deployment of 4,000 troops to Poland at the eleventh hour. The decision stirred confusion within the Pentagon and quickly sparked a firestorm of criticism from American lawmakers and European allies.

The self-styled "War Secretary" Pete Hegseth

Even the president was stumped by the move, a current and a former U.S. official told The Wall Street Journal.

Trump phoned Hegseth to demand an explanation for his decision to cancel the troop deployment, according to the outlet. During the conversation, Trump also told Hegseth that the U.S. shouldn’t treat Poland poorly, given its close ties to the White House.

An armored brigade from Fort Hood, Texas was supposed to go on a nine-month rotation to Poland, but Hegseth abruptly canceled that deployment in an effort to reduce the number of U.S. troops in Europe after Trump whined about European allies’ lack of support for his Iran war, according to CNN.

But Hegseth’s decision was a headscratcher for some officials because it was Germany—not Poland—that had criticized Trump’s war, the Journal reports.

Last month, German Chancellor Friedrich Merz drew Trump’s ire when he said “the Iranians are clearly stronger than expected, and the Americans clearly have no truly convincing strategy in the negotiations either,” adding that “a whole nation is being humiliated by the Iranian leadership.”

The White House did not immediately respond to a request for comment from the Daily Beast on Friday.

White House spokesperson Anna Kelly told the Journal that “President Trump appreciates all the secretary has done—and will continue to do—in executing the America First agenda within our military and prioritizing our warfighters like never before.”

Pentagon spokesperson Sean Parnell, meanwhile, said Trump and Hegseth “communicate constantly and are in lockstep regarding U.S. troop movements in Europe.”

“This is a slap in the face to Poland. It’s a slap in the face to our Baltic friends,” Nebraska Republican Don Bacon scolded Army leaders in a budget hearing last week.

Pawel Zalewski, Poland’s deputy defense minister, told the Journal that the U.S. was going to present Warsaw with options on ways “not to decrease American engagement in Poland.”

“We have offered to the Pentagon to host American soldiers on a permanent basis, and we understand what it means,” he said. “It means that we have to build a small city for this unit, and we are ready for that. We will cover the cost.”

While Trump may have had a change of heart on Poland, the Pentagon announced plans to pull 5,000 troops from Germany earlier this month, after German Chancellor Friedrich Merz issued a withering assessment of Trump’s Iran war. 

Trump changed course on the deployment of troops to Poland in a bizarre Truth Social post on Thursday night that invoked the election win of Polish President Karol Nawrocki—which occurred almost a year ago.

“Based on the successful Election of the now President of Poland, Karol Nawrocki, who I was proud to Endorse, and our relationship with him, I am pleased to announce that the United States will be sending an additional 5,000 Troops to Poland,” he wrote.