Fascist Giorgia Meloni, Donald Dumb's Best EU Friend, Learns How to Handle Senile Patients

The right-wing conservative PM of Italy, Giorgia Meloni, finds out the hard way the consequences of befriending the senile-criminal American nutcase geezer.

Donald Trump blatantly mocked Prime Minister Giorgia Meloni by saying she was dying to take a picture with him. He also declared to the G7 leaders that "he is the boss". Naturally, he is the boss of a Mafia of wealthy billionaires bilking the world of its resources and enriching themselves.

As a result, Italy's foreign minister on Friday cancelled his June 21-22 a visit to the United States. "The grave and offensive words of President Trump... offend the whole of Italy," Foreign Minister Antonio Tajani said on X.

Meloni said she was "stunned" by Trump's comments to the Italian television channel La7. According to a transcript provided by the channel, Donald Dumb said Meloni "wanted a picture with me so badly" at the G7 summit and he agreed only because he "felt sorry for her". He also suggested that Meloni might be "happy that I talked to her, I didn't have to talk to her".

Meloni replied that Trump's comments were "made up", adding: "Neither I nor Italy ever beg....I don't know why the president of the United States behaves this way with his own allies," the far-right Italian leader wrote on X. She knew all along that Donald Dumb is a womanizing moron. His comments suggest that Meloni might have a crush on him and that she was dying to have a picture with him.

"I can only say that it's a pity he doesn't show the same determination with enemies of the West, with enemies of the United States, with leaders with whom, instead, he is far more accommodating," she said.

Her right-winging Fascism placed her in a "go-between" position between Trump and the other European leaders. But then the Iran and Lebanon wars happened and the tryst between blonde Meloni (Trump has a thing for dumb blondes) and the Great Moron is on the way out. Now, he is a petty grudge-holder, so there are suspicions that Trump turned against Meloni after she defended Pope Leo XIV with whom the jackass US president has also been rude and vulgar.

Trump and his mini-me Hegseth have been threatening to pull US troops from Germany, Poland and Italy, because they haven't been loyal to him, i.e. they haven't cowered and followed him blindly in his asinine and criminal endeavors. The American morons think they are scaring the Europeans since a US withdrawal implies vulnerability to Russia's Putin, a friend of Trump, at least for now. Meanwhile, the Europeans and most other countries that are supposedly friends of the US (e.g. Japan, South Korea...) have begun their divorce from the US and strengthening their ties with more reliable partners like China.

The damage that Trump is inflicting on America's standing is not theoretical. It will be irreversible because at the core of such long term relationships is trust and reliability. Future US administrations, including Democrat ones, will be increasingly isolated on the world stage. The MAGA morons of Trump think that American military power is sufficient to coerce friends and foes to cower. This is why they are known worldwide as dumb and ugly Americans. If it becomes a habit of the American people to elect criminal dumb assholes to the presidency, then no one will ever trust any relationship with the US. Someone once said it is more dangerous to have the US as a friend than as an enemy. Indeed, with friends like Trump, who needs enemies?

Trump's Yuuuge TACO on Iran War

Stable genius Donald Dumb pondering, right before he falls asleep on Macron's shoulder, if his nose will ever grow longer. He's been lying his entire life and his nose has not grown longer. He therefore believes that he never lied.

Trump and his MAGA hoodlum cabinet, donkey-eared vendido Marco Rubio, Jesus-saved drunkard Pete Hegseth, really think the American people are stupid. They lie to them, make outlandish promises and big-time statements, launch unnecessary and ill-planned wars, knowing all of it to be a pile of horse manure. Again, this is typical American business marketing: Your product sucks but your advertisement campaign paints a ravishing picture for the dumb "consumer".

Then, when reality sets in and all the lies exposed and wild promises clash with deteriorating conditions on the ground, and the product actually sucks in the consumer's hands, businessman Trump changes his tune, claim he never made promises or outlandish statements - you should have read the fine print at the bottom of the last page of the Manual for Dumb Americans - and launches again on a stream of bold-face lies that are the opposite of the initial bunch of lies. 

Trump is right now applying Roy Cohn's teachings: Never give up. Never admit defeat. Keep lying every which way. Don't worry about the smart people in your audience; they are a small minority. Everyone else are dumbasses from Middle America, they'll swallow and won't spit. 

Everything he said at the outset of the Iran War has not panned out, but now the Great Moron is saying whatever BS comes to his mind to get himself out of admitting his crushing defeat and his own "unconditional surrender" to the Iranian ayatollahs. For example, the Moron is saying that his objective of regime change in Iran has indeed taken place: The 90-year old Ayatollah has been replaced by his own son, a younger Ayatollah, while the Revolutionary Guards remain in place and the entire structure of the Islamic Theocracy remains intact. You'd have to be a completely ignorant pig-humping white trash waterbrain from the sticks of America to believe what Trump is saying now.  

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Trump's goals for the Iran war and what he's saying now


Zak Hudak
Updated Fri, June 19, 2026

Washington — Hours after the U.S. launched its war against Iran in late February, President Trump laid out an aggressive list of war aims. He pledged to "destroy their missiles," prevent the regime from rebuilding its nuclear program and set the stage for Iranians to "take over" the country's government.

A week into the conflict, he wrote on Truth Social: "There will be no deal with Iran except UNCONDITIONAL SURRENDER!"

Now, as the Trump administration touts a newly signed memorandum of understanding to extend the U.S.-Iran ceasefire and jumpstart nuclear talks, the president has backed off some of those ambitions.

Mr. Trump told reporters this week it's "OK" for Iran to keep some of its ballistic missiles. He said he isn't in a hurry to recover Iran's stockpile of highly enriched uranium, and isn't vying for "regime change" in Iran. The memorandum of understanding also leaves most specifics on the fate of Iran's nuclear program to be determined in additional negotiations over the next 60 days.

The president also shared some praise for Iran's current leadership.

"We're dealing with people that I think are very rational people, and they were nice to deal with," Mr. Trump said of Iran's current leadership during an event at the G7 summit in France on Tuesday, noting that some prior Iranian leaders were killed during the war. "They were strong people, smart people. … They're not radicalized and they're looking to help their country."

Here's what the president and top administration officials have said about key issues related to Iran, then and now:

Eliminating ballistic missiles

Trump, Feb. 28: "We're going to destroy their missiles and raze their missile industry to the ground. It will be totally, again, obliterated."

Secretary of State Marco Rubio, March 2: "I'm telling you what the objectives of this operation are. The objectives of this operation are to destroy their ballistic missile capability and make sure they can't rebuild it, and make sure that they can't hide behind that to have a nuclear program. That's the objective of the mission."

Trump, June 17: "If other countries have them, it's a little bit unfair for [Iran] not to have some. A ballistic missile is not the same thing as what we're talking about, when we talk nuclear. But if Saudi Arabia and Qatar, and they all have some — in relative proportion, I think it's OK."

Context: While Mr. Trump has said preventing Iran from acquiring a nuclear weapon is his primary goal, the administration and U.S. allies in the Middle East have long raised concerns about threats posed by Iran's conventional military — especially its ballistic missiles, which can reach Israel and U.S. allies and military assets around the region. Throughout the war, U.S. forces heavily targeted Iran's missile stockpile and missile factories.

The U.S.-Iran memorandum of understanding does not make any references to ballistic missiles, though Mr. Trump said Wednesday his administration will work on a "parallel effort" with Persian Gulf countries to address Iran's conventional missiles and other "non-nuclear issues."

Mr. Trump argued Wednesday that most of Iran's missile stockpile was either destroyed or buried under rubble during the war. But he suggested he isn't looking to fully eliminate Iran's ballistic missiles.

He also appeared to mock some hawkish Trump supporters who want the country's missile program to be more thoroughly decimated. "I have guys — I like some of these guys, but I don't think they're smart — 'Sir, you shouldn't let them have any missiles.' I said: 'Well, what am I going to do? Am I going to let Saudi Arabia have missiles, but they can't have them?' … It doesn't work that way."

"Nuclear dust"

Trump, April 17: "The USA will get all nuclear dust — you know what the nuclear dust is? That was that white, powdery substance created by our B2 bombers, those great B2 bombers, late one evening 7 months ago."

Trump, April 26: "We have to take that nuclear dust. We're going to take it, and that's part of our negotiation with Iran. We don't want them to have it."

Trump, June 16: "What's happening is that at an appropriate time — there's no rush at all. We have cameras from space on it. We know everybody that goes there, which is, like, nobody. The B2 bombers hit it. The entire mountain collapsed inside it. It's a very tough excavation. Nobody else can do it, but us, and probably China. They have the equipment, we have the equipment. We're in no rush, but we get it. And when we get it, we'll destroy it."

Context: In the years leading up to the war, Iran amassed a stockpile of 60% enriched uranium, which is just a short step away from weapons-grade material. Much of that material was held in a handful of subterranean facilities that were bombed by the U.S. last year, making it difficult to access.

During this year's war, the Trump administration strategized on ways to recover the uranium, which the president calls "nuclear dust." An operation to dig through the rubble and take the material would have been among the most challenging and risky special operations missions in U.S. history, experts say.

In the memorandum of understanding, the U.S. and Iran "agreed to resolve the disposition of stockpiled enriched material" in their talks over the next 60 days. The "minimum methodology" is "down-blending" the uranium to a lower level of purity onsite, under the International Atomic Energy Agency's supervision.

But Mr. Trump suggested this week taking the material is not an urgent task, expressing doubt that Iran can recover it. He said Wednesday "we'd like to get it psychologically, but nobody's touching it."

Uranium enrichment

Trump, Feb. 27: "They want to enrich a little bit. You don't have to enrich when you have that much oil. … I say, no enrichment. Not 20%, 30%. They always want 20%, 30%. … They want it for civil. I think it's uncivil."

Trump, June 14: The final deal must permanently ensure that Iran "can only enrich for nonmilitary purposes" and "can never go beyond a certain amount," the president said in an interview with The New York Times in which he said he wants a suspension on uranium enrichment for 15 or 20 years.

Trump, June 17: "I've said to them always: 'You have probably the third-largest oil reserves in the world. What the hell do you need nuclear for?' … It is a little hard, though, when you say that somebody wants it, other people have it, other adjoining states have it, and you're not letting them have it for purposes of electricity and things like that. It's always a little tough. You have to use a little common sense."

Vice President JD Vance, June 18: "The Obama nuclear deal allowed enrichment. Ours will not."

Context: Iran has long refused to fully give up its uranium enrichment program. Iranian officials insist the program is intended for peaceful purposes, and as recently as last year, U.S. intelligence agencies found Iran was not actively building a nuclear weapon, though Iran has enriched uranium in recent years to levels well beyond what's necessary for most non-military purposes.

The 2015 nuclear deal inked by the Obama administration allowed Iran to keep enriching uranium to 3.67%, significantly below the 90% used for bombs, with limits on the size of Iran's stockpile and the number and types of centrifuges Iran could operate. That structure drew criticism at the time, and Mr. Trump withdrew the U.S. from the deal during his first term in office.

Prior to the outbreak of war, Mr. Trump said he wanted Iran to agree to "no enrichment."

The U.S.-Iran memorandum of understanding leaves specifics on uranium enrichment for later, saying only that the two countries "agreed to discuss the issue of enrichment and other mutually agreed matters related to the Islamic Republic of Iran's nuclear needs." It's unclear what a final deal could look like. Mr. Trump suggested this week it could be "hard" to get Iran to fully give up its nuclear program, but Vance suggested the president's red line of no enrichment is still in place.

Regime change

Trump, addressing the Iranian people in a video on Truth Social on Feb. 28: "Take over your government. It will be yours to take. This will be, probably, your only chance for generations."

Trump, March 29: "We've had regime change, if you look already, because the one regime was decimated, destroyed, they're all dead. The next regime is mostly dead, and the third regime, we're dealing with different people than anybody's dealt with before. It's a whole different group of people. So I would consider that regime change."

Trump, June 16: "You talk about regime change. I never cared about regime change."

Context: In the war's opening hours, Mr. Trump explicitly framed it as an opportunity for the Iranian people to overthrow the Islamic Republic, which has governed Iran since 1979. After Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei was killed in strikes, Mr. Trump said he wanted a role in picking Iran's next leader, and was "disappointed" by the decision to elevate Khamenei's son to the post of supreme leader.

More recently, as the Iranian regime has remained in place, Mr. Trump offered a slightly different view, arguing the killing of prior Iranian leaders was effectively a form of "regime change."

Frozen assets and sanctions relief

Trump, May 27: "No, we're not talking about any easing of sanctions or giving money. No sanctions, no money, no nothing."

Trump, June 17: "It's not our money, it's their money. And we froze it at a certain point in time, I guess we're going to have to give it back."

Context: A key issue for Iran is the removal — or suspension — of intense U.S. sanctions that have hobbled Iran's economy and frozen its assets, many of which date back to the "maximum pressure" campaign in Mr. Trump's first term or even earlier. The Obama-era nuclear deal lifted sanctions in exchange for limits on Iran's nuclear program, an arrangement Mr. Trump argued in 2018 gave Iran "many billions of dollars."

This week's memorandum of understanding says the U.S. will lift "all types of sanctions" against Iran on an "agreed-upon schedule as part of the final deal." The Trump administration has said no sanctions will be removed or assets unfrozen unless Iran demonstrates compliance.

GOP-MAGA Corruption is Without Limits of Conscience or Conflict of Interest

Trump Has Used Taxpayer Money To Purchase Stakes in Dozens of Companies. Congress Is About to Make It Easier.

Eric Boehm
Thu, June 18, 2026 

The Trump administration has taken equity stakes in private businesses, and Congress is considering creating a new fund for future presidents to do the same.

By taking equity stakes in more than a dozen private businesses, the Trump administration has stretched executive power to new heights—and now Congress is working to ensure that future presidents get the same opportunity.

The Senate's version of the 2027 National Defense Authorization Act includes a provision to create a new slush fund within the U.S. Treasury for the purpose of buying stakes in more private businesses. The Pentagon would be able to tap the proposed Defense Equity Investment Account to make investments of up to $500 million in private companies involved in the production of "critical minerals, materials, and chemicals" or batteries.

The provision, which is buried within the 1,500-word bill drafted this week by the Senate Armed Services Committee, would allow the "direct or indirect purchase, acquisition, or commitment of funds by the Department of Defense in exchange for an ownership interest, convertible interest, warrant, revenue-sharing instrument, or other similar financial instrument in a non-Federal entity."

Besides the $500 million cap on those investments, the government is also forbidden from taking more than a 50 percent ownership stake in any private business. Other than that, however, there seem to be few limitations or guardrails on how the new equity account could be used.

During a closed-door session last week, the Senate Armed Services Committee reportedly voted down an amendment that would have prohibited the Trump administration from taking equity stakes in businesses with ties to the president, his family members, and members of his cabinet.

Some of the Trump administration's investment decisions have seemingly benefited those close to Trump. Vulcan Elements, which makes magnets out of rare earth elements, got a $620 million loan from the Pentagon's Office of Strategic Capital. Donald Trump Jr. is a partner at the company.

Sen. Elissa Slotkin (D–Mich.) told NOTUS that Republicans rejected that proposal after expressing worries about how Trump would react. "Over and over we heard in the NDAA markup a number of my Republican colleagues express concern that they didn't want to insult the president, they didn't want to send a negative message to the president, they didn't want to offend the president, or they were scared of his reaction," Slotkin said.

It would be a good idea for lawmakers to prevent the president from using a new Pentagon slush fund to enrich his relatives and allies. But it would be better to avoid creating this account in the first place. Congress should not be codifying Trump's socialist behavior and should not be making it easier (and legal) for future presidents to follow suit.

"If Washington wants more domestic or allied production of minerals, magnets, chemicals, or batteries, it has tools that do not require making taxpayers shareholders," like removing permitting and regulatory hurdles or following the regular government procurement process, writes Tad DeHaven, a policy analyst at the Cato Institute. "What it shouldn't do is pick favored companies and make the federal government an investor, customer, regulator, and political patron."

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Trump administration quietly shifts $352m in federal funds for White House ballroom
Joseph Gedeon in Washington
Thu, June 18, 2026


Donald Trump at the site of ongoing construction of the planned White House ballroom on 19 May 2026.Photograph: Kevin Lamarque/Reuters

Donald Trump's administration has quietly redirected $352m in federal funds designated for the Secret Service toward the president's controversial White House ballroom project, despite repeated promises by Trump that the construction would be financed by private donations

The funds were drawn from the One Big Beautiful Bill Act, Trump's signature tax legislation passed last summer on Republican-only votes. The law stipulates the money may only be spent on Secret Service personnel, training facilities, technology and related costs, not construction.

About $340.8m of the funding was placed into an account labeled "Procurement, Construction, and Improvements" on 12 June, according to the office of management and budget (OMB) database. Another account labeled "Operations and Support" was also approved the same day, adding another $10.75m to the budget.

The move came after Congress explicitly refused to provide $1bn in funds for the "East Wing Modernization Project", the Trump administration's official name for a 90,000-sq-ft ballroom being built on the site of the White House's demolished East Wing.

The administration argued the funds were needed for legitimate security upgrades, pointing to recent threats against Trump, including an alleged plot to attack Sunday's UFC Freedom 250 event on the White House south lawn.

"The East Wing Modernization Project is inextricably tied to the security of the president, the White House grounds and the certain security infrastructure assets," White House spokesperson Davis Ingle said. "President Trump and generous American patriots are funding the ballroom to the tune of approximately $400m, which will be a secure and appropriate venue for presidents for generations to come."

Those disrupted attacks, Ingle said, "proves exactly why" the project is needed for events at the White House, which include "drone-proof structures and drone ports among other critical security enhancements".

Senior legislators were unconvinced. "That's a big problem," Senator Thom Tillis, a Republican from North Carolina who is retiring at the end of the year, told Notus. "That sounds like a different way to fund the East Wing project. On its face it doesn't sound right."

Brian Schatz, a Democratic senator from Hawaii on the appropriations committee, also told the outlet: "I don't know whether it's the ballroom, but it sounds like the ballroom."

The row is the latest chapter in a widening controversy over who is actually paying for the project. When the ballroom was announced in July 2025 at an estimated cost of $200m, Trump described it as "a private thing", before the East Wing was destroyed in October.

In late March, with estimates doubling to $400m, Trump insisted: "This is taxpayer-free. We have no taxpayer putting up 10 cents."

But those assurances have since frayed. Internal records obtained by the Washington Post from Clark Construction, the firm leading the project, show plans calling for $155m from Secret Service funds, $149m from the White House military office and $3m from the executive residence, all of which is public money, alongside private contributions. The Washington Post has reported total costs could reach $600m.

The private fundraising side has drawn its own scrutiny.

Watchdogs including the Campaign Legal Center have warned that donations from major corporations such as Meta, Coinbase and Lockheed Martin, all of whom have significant interests before the US federal government, create a substantial risk of corruption.

Construction, meanwhile, remains subject to ongoing legal challenges, after a federal judge ruled in March that the administration had probably exceeded its authority in demolishing the East Wing without congressional approval.

When anti-Science Morons Run the Country

Binge-drunkard womanizer, Jesus-saved Christian Taliban Secretary of Warmongering, Pete Hegseth, terminated mandatory vaccines in the US military per the recommendation of his creepy "new age" medicine man RFK Jr. 

Hegseth, like RFK Jr, does not like science and prefers voodoo-like charlatanism hiding behind freewill. To this effect, the Christian Taliban Secretary of Warmongering gets inspired by his Islamic equals, the Muslim Taliban, and instead imposed prayers and religious services invoking Jesus's help in warding off diseases. 

It doesn't matter if people get sick because this is God's will, a principle of primitive religious fatalism that makes stupid people even more stupid. John Stuart Mills once said in an 1866 address to the British parliament, "Although it is not true that all conservatives are stupid people, it is true that most stupid people are conservative."
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Nearly 160 sick with flu at US air force base after Hegseth ends mandatory vaccines


Pete Hegseth at a Nato meeting in Brussels on Thursday.Photograph: Omar Havana/Getty Images

Jessica Glenza
Thu, June 18, 2026 

An influenza outbreak has reportedly sickened more than 150 recruits in training at Lackland air force base in San Antonio, Texas.

The outbreak comes just weeks after the defense secretary, Pete Hegseth, ended mandatory flu vaccination for the military, citing the need for bodily autonomy for servicemembers.

"We're seizing this moment to discard any absurd overreaching mandates that only weaken our war fighting capabilities," said Hegseth in an April social media video. "In this case that includes the universal flu vaccine and the mandate behind it.

"Your body, your faith and your convictions are not negotiable," said Hegseth.

At least 159 recruits have fallen ill, according to the New York Times and ABC News. After Hegseth made influenza shots optional, only about 40% of recruits opted to get vaccinated, air force officials told the New York Times.

About 46% of adults were vaccinated against influenza in the 2025-26 cold season, according to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC).

Lackland is located inside Joint Base San Antonio, a 70,000-member installation sometimes called Military City. Recruits at Lackland live in communal settings, eating together and sleeping in dormitories. Such settings are known to be vulnerable to outbreaks of airborne illness.

It is not clear whether the recent death of a basic military trainee was related to the outbreak. Keon McDaniel died on 16 June after experiencing a "medical emergency". The cause is under investigation, according to an air force press release.

Air force officials said recruits at Lackland had been ordered to be vaccinated against the flu as part of containment efforts, according to the Times.

A spokesperson for the Pentagon directed the Guardian to the air force press office.

The air force press office did not immediately respond.

The US-Iran Deal to Collapse over US-Israel Dispute on Lebanon

[Updated at far bottom]

Donald Dumb continues to earn his "dumb moron" qualifier that most former political associates refer to him with, as they walk out of the Cuckoo's Nest of a White House.

But the dumber than Donald Dumb is Ben-Yamin Netanyahu who thought he could insert his hand up the caudal aperture of the world's village idiot, the American president, and use him like a hand puppet by inciting him to war with Iran. At first, the village idiot went along the idea, an idea that five former presidents, both democrats and republicans, had rejected. But like a textbook example of a mentally-challenged idiot, the village idiot soon began smelling the stench of being played by the Zionist lobby and Netanyahu.

For one thing, the war did not go as planned by the Zionists who thought they were guided by Moses leading the Hebrews and that Yahweh will open the Arabian-Persian Sea and and allow "his people" to smash the Iranians and conquer the new promised land like they did with Palestine the first time some 3,000 years ago, by massacring every man, woman, child and beast.

Then, with a war going nowhere and getting more complicated with new problems that neither the Idiot-in-Chief and his scintillating intelligence people nor his smartass Zionist handlers anticipated, the dumbass president began losing his patience and backtracking on all the superlative-laden hifalutin threats and promises he initially was instructed to believe by his "friends" in the Zionist colony in Palestine.

Then, there is the problem of Lebanon and its Iranian Hezbollah militia. The Zionists have had over some 6 decades to fight an on-off war against the "resistance" and "liberation" BS of the Palestinians first then Hezbollah now. Of all the thousands of miles of border between Israel and the Arab countries, only the 75 miles (120 Km) long border with Lebanon has been assigned as the only active front line between Israel and the entire Arab-Muslim world for the liberation of Palestine, and that is only because Lebanon is half-Muslim, half-Christian. In other words, the Arabs and Muslims felt that if they had to sacrifice one of them in their sublime quest to throw the "alien" Israelis into the sea, it will be the other "alien" in their midst, Christian-led Lebanon. They all made peace (Egypt, Jordan) or signed Abraham Accords (UAE, Sudan, Bahrain...) or even ignored the fact that Israel occupied and annexed a huge chunk of their territory (Syria and its stolen Golan Heights), but they can't let go of Lebanon as their sacrificial lamb.

At this time, Donald Dumb knows he was bamboozled by Netanyahu and he is lashing out. He is desperate to "close" the chapter of the war before the midterms, both because of its unpopularity and because the closure of the Strait of Hormuz has sent the global economy - and the US domestic economy - into a spiral of high energy prices, rising inflation and major disruptions in the supply chains.

Since the narcissistic dumbass will never admit his own failure, he is now blaming the Israelis who thought they could count on the village idiot to let them attain their most fantastic dream of annihilating Hezbollah and its threats to the northern Israeli villages. They want to continue their rampage through Lebanon regardless of the memorandum of understanding signed by Trump with the Iranians who insist of making implementation of their MoU with Trump contingent on ending the Israeli-Hezbollah war in Lebanon.

Still very murky situation, because the MoU is very vague on what happens in Lebanon. Potential settlements there could range from a cessation of hostilities with everyone staying put, to a cessation of hostilities PLUS a withdrawal of Israeli forces, or a cessation of hostilities PLUS a return of Hezbollah within shooting range of Israel, and will any Israeli withdrawal be a full withdrawal back to the Blue Line? Or a withdrawal to some 10 kilometers north of the border such that Israel maintains an occupation zone inside Lebanon?

The Iranians say one thing, and of course they want everything: A full Israeli withdrawal and a restoration of Hezbollah to its former status without surrendering its weapons (as everyone else, including the Americans, the Zionists and the Lebanese government say they want). Netanyahu promised his people he will exterminate and annihilate Hezbollah, but it is apparent he can't unless he launches a massive land invasion, like the one by Ariel Sharon in 1982 to dislodge the PLO. But it seems that the world has changed and land invasions are not cool anymore. Even the Americans have learned from their many invasion debacles of the past several decades (Vietnam, Iraq, Afghanistan, Somalia...), and as we see before our eyes, Trump's America would not invade Iran to bring it down to its knees because such a venture would be too expensive in treasure and life and it just plainly doesn't really work.

Meanwhile, the Americans are still propping up the Lebanese government as a worthy party with whom to negotiate on the matter of Hezbollah. Whether by stupidity or lack of other options, the Americans negotiate with a Lebanese government that has long been a slave of Hezbollah and whose decisions they know are not binding to Hezbollah.

But Donald Dumb, like most American policymakers, find it difficult to understand the complexities of the region, When you hail from a country whose borders were drawn by a pencil and a ruler on a piece of paper, it is just impossible to comprehend borders drawn by thousands of years of history. So they rush to oversimplify and use a reductionist approach to solving such problems. Donald Dumb just wants the world to stop talking about his war with Iran because it casts a shadow over his chances at the midterms. So he throws the Israelis under the bus. He can't throw the Arabs or the Iranians under the bus because they have lots of oil and his eyes roll like a slot machine's pay line when he smells money.

Donald Dumb wants the Israelis to abandon their decades-old dream of ending the threat against their northern border. Just like that. That is at least what we hear on the news. But there could be a good cop-bad cop game that Donald Dumb and Netanyahu are playing just to get the Great Moron over the finish line in November, after which they can go back to warmongering. We just don't know.

For now, it is the turn of the Zionists to shriek in distress because Trump wants them to stop what they are doing in Lebanon. They must be asking themselves, how many times do we have to wage endless wars in southern Lebanon? This is a good opportunity to end the problem. We don't want to wait another decade or two and repeat the same thing. Why did Netanyahu rely on an unpredictable moron now reneging on his Judeo-Christian love for us?

Until the barbarian Zionist settlers decide what to do, they are fighting among each other as to how to respond to their village idiot's sudden backlash and rebellion. They thought they could always count on the Americans to be dumb and follow their caprice, thanks to AIPAC in DC. But they are discovering that what is worse than your standard dumb American is a dumb-and-ugly weirdo American like Donald Trump who is already setting up a $300 billion fund to rebuild what he destroyed in Iran! 

Meanwhile, Arabs and Muslims are celebrating Iran's "victory" in repelling the US-Israel attack. Should the Zionists relent and agree to also "lose" in south Lebanon (like the US "lost" in Iran) by obeying their breastfeeding American mother and give Hezbollah another "divine victory"? Or should they disobey and risk America's love which they thought was undying and eternal?

The retreat of the US from the Iran front and its badly cooked memorandum of understanding could be a mine of misunderstandings in the coming weeks and months. I bet you the Great Moron would have forgotten everything he may have learned during the upcoming 60 days of "technical" negotiations which in fact have nothing technical about them: They will be negotiating the real issues which they pushed down the road: Nuclear Iran, ballistic missiles, release of withheld Iranian funds... 

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Israel issues new Lebanon occupation map, in talks with US over deployment
By Pesha Magid and Rami Ayyub
Thu, June 18, 2026


A map published by the Israeli army-IDF, indicates the Security zone in which IDF soldiers are operating in southern Lebanon in this handout illustration obtained by Reuters on June 18, 2026 Israel Defense Forces/Handout via REUTERS

JERUSALEM, June 18 (Reuters) - Israel's military published a map on Thursday showing an expanded zone of control for its troops in southern Lebanon, as Israeli officials told Reuters Israel was holding talks with the U.S. over ‌continuing its deployment.

An interim pact signed on Wednesday to end the U.S.-Israeli war with Iran calls for an end to fighting on ‌all fronts, including in Lebanon, and for parties to ensure "the territorial integrity and sovereignty of Lebanon."

Israel has rejected calls to withdraw troops from southern Lebanon, which it invaded in March ​in response to rocket fire by the Iran-backed Hezbollah militia. Israeli attacks and the destruction of villages have killed thousands and set off a displacement crisis.

Hezbollah has continued to launch attacks on Israeli positions in the south this week, including with explosive drones that have killed and injured troops.

Two Israeli officials, including a senior official close to Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, said Israel was holding talks with the U.S. over maintaining its troop deployment in southern Lebanon. The ‌senior official described those talks as "stubborn".

The military, which ⁠in April published a map marking its so-called buffer zone in southern Lebanon, released a new map that shows its troops are operating several kilometres deeper into the country, including near the Hezbollah stronghold of Nabatieh north of ⁠the Litani River.

Israeli troops have been operating in some of those areas for several weeks, but the military had not yet published a map showing the expanded zone of control.

In the map published on Thursday, the military described the territory, marked in dark red, as: "The security zone in which IDF (Israel Defense Forces) soldiers are ​operating in ​southern Lebanon".

IRAN DEAL HAS EXPOSED TENSIONS BETWEEN NETANYAHU, TRUMP

Netanyahu and Donald Trump have ​repeatedly clashed in recent weeks as the U.S. president sought ‌to extricate himself from the war against Iran he jointly launched with his longtime Israeli ally.

Israeli officials have voiced anger with the U.S.-Iran pact, which the two signed on Wednesday, saying it didn't go far enough to address Israeli concerns over Iran's nuclear program and would tie down their military operations in Lebanon.

Trump has made no secret of his frustration with Netanyahu and has criticized Israel's military actions in Lebanon, saying it was unnecessary to bomb entire apartment buildings to hunt Hezbollah militants.

The two Israeli officials, who spoke to Reuters on condition of anonymity to discuss sensitive talks with ‌Washington, said Israel would not back down on its position that its troops would ​remain deployed in Lebanon.

One of the officials said the outcome of the talks would ​ultimately depend on whether Trump "decides to force the issue" by threatening ​repercussions if Israel does not abide by the interim pact's terms.

There has been no indication that Trump's commentary will ‌translate into concrete actions -- such as withholding military aid or ​slowing arms shipments -- that could force Israel ​to rethink its military tactics.

Israel describes the territory it has seized in Lebanon, Gaza and Syria as "buffer zones" between it and its enemies, a core facet of Israel's recent security policy.

The Iran war pact appeared to leave Israel with some "wiggle room", said Jonathan Rynhold, a ​senior researcher at Israel's Bar-Ilan University.

"The reference to ‌the territorial integrity and sovereignty of Lebanon certainly implies that Israel will have to withdraw," he said.

"However, it also implies that ​Hezbollah should not be able to hold weapons because that is a threat to the sovereignty of the government of Lebanon."

(Reporting ​by Pesha Magid, Rami Ayyub and Jana Choukeir; Editing by Aidan Lewis)

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The Great American Moron just declared that the Iranian government, with whom he negotiated his ramshackle memorandum of misunderstandings, represents a "regime change". He obviously wants to claim that his war caused a regime change, which his herd of MAGA morons will accept because they are morons. But replacing an aging ayatollah with his ayatollah son while maintaining the entire Islamic Theocracy hierarchy in place does not constitute a regime change. Only dumb ignorant MAGA fools will believe the Great Moron's lies.

Meanwhile, the Trump administration is revealing its deep antisemitic sentiments toward the State of Israel, as statements below by JD Vance indicate. Where art thou, AIPAC?

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US lifts naval blockade as Iran's supreme leader says Trump made deal 'out of desperation'
Vicky Wong
Fri, June 19, 2026


[ISNA/WANA/Reuters]

The US has dropped its naval blockade of Iran after the two countries signed a deal to end the war in the Middle East.

US Central Command confirmed the end of the blockade on X "in accordance with the President's direction", and said some US vessels would remain "in the general area".

Soon afterwards, Iran's Supreme Leader Mojtaba Khamenei said he had approved the deal with the US despite having a "different view", without elaborating. He said he allowed it to go ahead after assurances from Iran's President Masoud Pezeshkian that he would "protect the rights of the Iranian nation".

Khamenei said President Trump had "out of desperation, used all kinds of leverage" to bring the deal about.

The supreme leader said that while there would be "in-person negotiations in the future" between Tehran and Washington, this "will not mean acceptance of the enemy's position".

This is the first time Khamenei has responded to the agreement. He has not been seen in public since he took office in March following the killing of his father and predecessor, Ayatollah Ali Khamenei, in the 28 February US-Israeli strikes on Iran that sparked the regional war.

Trump did not directly respond to Khamanei's statement, but posted on Truth Social that he expects a ceasefire to take effect "on all fronts", including between Israel and Iran-backed Hezbollah in Lebanon, and that he expects countries in the Middle East to "maintain their commitment to allowing our negotiations" to take place.

The US-Iran deal centres around 14 core points, including the reopening of the Strait of Hormuz, a requirement that Iran should never have a nuclear weapon, and a commitment to a $300bn (£227bn) fund for the "reconstruction and economic development" of the country - although the US is not required to contribute.

It also binds both sides to achieving a final deal in a "maximum" of 60 days, which could be extended with mutual consent. [How does that piece of garbage of a MoU stipulate an oxymoronic "extendable maximum" of 60 days is beyond comprehension]

The official signing ceremony had been set to take place in Switzerland on Friday. However, mediator Pakistan told the BBC it had been cancelled because the deal had already been signed remotely. US and Iranian representatives are still expected to meet in Switzerland for further talks.

A White House spokesperson said on Thursday evening that the US Vice-President JD Vance would not be departing tonight.

Speaking to reporters at a White House briefing earlier, Vance said the deal had come into effect, triggering the 60-day period of further talks, and that he would likely head to Switzerland for "technical negotiations".

He did not confirm when, adding that Iran was "not an easy country to get out of" and that they were "trying to figure out exactly when that was going to happen".

The White House spokesperson said the US was "looking forward to beginning technical talks as soon as possible".

Trump's decision to end the war with Iran has raised criticism from some in the US, including Republicans dismayed by the terms of the deal - especially the provision of a reconstruction fund for Iran.

Republican Senator Bill Cassidy described the agreement as the "worst foreign policy blunder in decades".

"Iran's nuclear ambitions were not curbed, and they have learned that threatening the Strait of Hormuz works," he said.

Vance defended the deal on Thursday, saying that Iran will not receive money or sanctions relief unless it meets obligations set out in the agreement.

He said the deal, known as the Memorandum of Understanding (MoU), requires Iran to destroy its stockpile of enriched uranium, and show it will not fund proxy groups in the region.

Vance also castigated members of Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu's cabinet for criticising the Iran deal, saying they should "wake up and smell the reality".

"If I was in the cabinet of the Israeli government, I might not be attacking the only powerful ally that I have anywhere left in the entire world," the vice-president told reporters. [The dumb American VP is this admitting that the US is the only country around the world that supports the Zionist colony in Palestine and enables it to continue its rape of Palestine].

In an interview with the New York Times also published on Thursday, Vance named Israel's national security minister Itamar Ben Gvir and finance minister Bezalel Smotrich as critics of the deal.

He said: "I guess my response to them would be - what is your exact proposal? You're a country of nine million people. You can't just kill your way out of solving every single national security problem that you have."

Iran's supreme leader publicly responded to the US-Iran deal for the first time after it was signed [EPA]

Netanyahu himself stressed the importance of maintaining Israel's close ties with the US on Thursday, saying Washington had stood "shoulder to shoulder" with the country during the war with Iran.

But both Israel and Hezbollah have carried out strikes against each other since the US-Iran agreement was announced, including strikes reported in Lebanon on Thursday that killed three people.

Israel argues its conflict against Hezbollah is separate from its war on Iran. Hezbollah has also rejected the terms of the deal between Iran and the US.

Vance told reporters that Israel would have to respect the peace process with Iran, which he said was good for them, stating that attacks in Lebanon's capital Beirut that kill civilians are "not acceptable".

The Rushed "Kick-the-can-down-the road" Memorandum between Iran and US

The world is stunned at how suddenly Trump climbed down from his "maximum pressure" campaign and rushed through the final stages of negotiations between Iran and the US. Consensus is that his fears of losing the midterms were mounting at an exponential rate.

As a result, and rather than spend months and months through negotiating the really hard issues for which the war was launched to begin with, and which would take the unpopular war right into the elections in November, Trump ordered his real-estate-developers-turned- negotiators minions to give Iran all the concessions it wanted in exchange for just QUICKLY signing a toilet paper equivalent of an agreement. Remember Trump's pounding in his latest posts that "Time is of the essence"? 

The "thinking" (if such a thing does exist in the Great Moron's mind) behind this rush was something like this:

1- It was all guided by Trump's marketing and advertising bullshit slogans he learned in American business school: Perception is everything. Substance doesn't matter. Sell crap to people while making them feel good about themselves...Make a stupid MoU look like a peace treaty...

2- Forget Trump's macho demand of "unconditional surrender" by Iran. Forget "wiping out an entire civilization".... it was all hot air pumped into the airhead Trump by Netanyahu and his Zionist handlers. It's like the silverback male in the Kenyan mountains beating his chest.

3- Let's sign anything NOW and declare a pretend-victory. Cut our mounting losses NOW and deal the real problems later. Kick the can down the road and hope for victory in November, after which we can always go back to warmongering on behalf of our Zionist colony in Palestine.

4- This gives us time to recover by Election Day in November since we would have fooled the American people into believing that we ended the war, and that gasoline prices and inflation would subside a bit.

5- Recoup some popularity we have lost with GOP moderates and independents.

6- The only - and not-so-immediate -  gain we (Americans) made is re-opening the Strait of Hormuz, which was not an issue before the war, i.e. the war created more headaches for us that our scintillating Pentagon leaders like Pete Hegseth did not anticipate. Most experts and economists say that it will take several months for normal traffic and trade across the Strait of Hormuz to resume, assuming the ceasefire holds.

7- Push off all the important issues for which we started the war to a vague and tricky 60 days of further negotiations: 

- Nuclear file. 

- Ballistic Missiles. 

- Iran's Proxies (Hezbollah, Houthis...)... 

It took President Obama two years to hash out the 2015 JCPOA deal with Iran. The Great Moron's attention span is at best 20 minutes before he falls asleep, and he thinks he can resolve decades-old thorny issues in 60 days?  

In sum, the USraeli War on Iran seems to have boiled down to creating de novo the Strait of Hormuz problem, then signing a memorandum of understanding for re-opening it. What achievement! None of the demands the Americans and Israelis initially wanted from Iran was achieved. And now, they have 60 treacherous days to flesh out what decades of tensions and negotiations have failed to resolve. 

That's a GREAT PLAN.

Meanwhile, Netanyahu continues to bomb Lebanon, which Trump fears might obstruct the fast-track signing of the pointless toilet paper memorandum of understanding.

To save his hide in November, Trump is stabbing his Zionist friends in the back, just as he is preparing to stab the Lebanese in the back by asking Syria to re-occupy Lebanon and turn it back into the neighborhood's back alley where all thugs and outlaws come to solve their problems.

Propaganda Show-and-Tell: Hegseth Plays Goebbels with 'Peace Through Warmongering'

MAGA Fascists wax nostalgic of good old Nazi Germany when so-called traditional conservative "Aryan white family values" were married nicely with racism, self-declared supremacy and hatred of all other nations and peoples. Adultering boozehound and Jesus-saved Pete Hegtseth declares that "Peace through Warmongering" is how the United States should police the world, just like ICE and CBP are making the US peaceful by turning it into a police state that hounds people on the streets and in their homes. The American Reich is upon us!
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Minister calls out national theater chain for showing 'propaganda'

Marc Ramirez, USA TODAY
Thu, June 18, 2026 

An Oregon minister's efforts to urge a movie theater chain to cease playing a promotional video for the U.S. Department of War before film showings is drawing attention.

The Rev. Chuck Currie, a minister in the United Church of Christ in Portland, complained in a letter to Regal Theaters that he and his family had gone to see Steven Spielberg's "Disclosure Day" Sunday evening when the 90-second ad touting the U.S. Department of War played before the pre-film trailers.

"The audience was stunned," he told USA TODAY, calling the video "a propaganda piece promoting Trump and the MAGA agenda."

The War Department's "Peace Through Strength" video, which was also played during the White House's $60 million UFC Freedom 250 exhibition, features dramatic music, a fist-pumping War Secretary Pete Hegseth and a voiceover of President Donald Trump saying, "If you attack the United States of America, we will hunt you down."

"It was like we were at a movie theater in Russia or North Korea," Currie wrote in his letter, which he posted on social media. "Democracies do not do this."

Currie's posts drew hundreds of thousands of responses across several social media platforms.

Some commented they'd also seen the video during recent movie outings, with one saying another chain's management had been quick to pull it from theaters after backlash. Others said they would stop frequenting Regal's theaters.

Currie, the former director of the Center for Peace and Spirituality at Pacific University in Forest Grove, Oregon, demanded the chain "immediately stop showing" the video, which he described as "a propaganda video. Nothing more, nothing less."

U.S. troops react as President Donald Trump walks to deliver remarks, near a banner reading, "Peace Through Strength", during a visit to Al Udeid Air Base in Doha, Qatar, May 15, 2025.

Regal Entertainment, based in Knoxville, Tennessee, is one of the largest theater operators in the United States, with nearly 5,400 screens in 41 states. The company, which aired the UFC event live in theaters, did not immediately respond to an inquiry from USA TODAY.

In his posts, Currie said the audience "loudly booed" the spot.

"We routinely see videos at Regal promoting careers in the military," his letter stated. "This was not that."

In the video, Trump says the U.S. will "lead the world to peace" through "power and might," adding: "Our friends will respect us, our enemies will fear us and the whole world will admire the unrivaled greatness of the U.S. military."

Currie called the theater chain's decision to show the video "an endorsement of Donald Trump, his failed war in Iran and the white Christian nationalism advocated by Secretary Hegseth."

Currie told USA TODAY he had yet to receive any response from Regal, though he remained hopeful given the abundant reaction to his posts. Neither Regal nor the War Department replied to inquiries from USA TODAY in time for publication.

"Many have left comments, letting me know that they experienced the exact same thing in their theater this past week," he said. "It would be a mistake for Regal and other theaters not to respond."

This article originally appeared on USA TODAY: Minister chastises theater chain for War Department 'propaganda'

Full Text of the Draft MoU between the US and Iran

The Memorandum of Understanding (MoU) between the US and Iran is due to be formally signed Friday near Luzern, Switzerland, triggering a 60 day-window to negotiate the final terms of a deal. Last minute alterations, changes or edits may still be made.

Here is the text in full:

1 — The Islamic Republic of Iran and the United States, together with their allies in the current war, declare upon the signing of this Memorandum of Understanding an immediate and permanent end to the war on all fronts, including Lebanon, and undertake that from now on they will not launch any hostile action against each other, and will refrain from the threat or use of force against each other. The final agreement will confirm the provisions of this Article and the remaining Articles.

2 — The Islamic Republic of Iran and the United States undertake to respect each other's sovereignty and territorial integrity, and to refrain from interfering in each other's internal affairs.

3 — The Islamic Republic of Iran and the United States undertake to negotiate and reach a final agreement within a maximum period of 60 days, extendable by mutual consent.

4 — Immediately upon the signing of this Memorandum of Understanding, the United States lift the naval blockade and prevent any interference or obstruction against the Islamic Republic of Iran, and restore traffic within a maximum of 30 days to its full capacity; the traffic of ships shall be proportional to the pre-war volume of traffic on the part of the Islamic Republic of Iran. The United States also undertakes to withdraw its forces from the surrounding areas within 30 days after the final agreement.

5 — Upon signing this Memorandum of Understanding, the Islamic Republic of Iran will immediately take steps to ensure that the movement of merchant ships from the Persian Gulf to the Sea of Oman and vice versa is resumed within 30 days to the pre-war volume, taking into account the need for the removal of technical obstacles and the neutralization of mines by Iran.

6 — The United States undertakes, together with its regional partners, to create a comprehensive plan agreed upon by both parties for the rehabilitation and economic development of the Islamic Republic of Iran, while ensuring financing of at least $300 billion. The implementation mechanism of this plan, as part of the final agreement, will be formulated within 60 days.

7 — The United States commits to ending, on a schedule to be agreed upon as part of the final agreement, all types of sanctions currently facing the Islamic Republic of Iran, including resolutions of the United Nations Security Council and the Board of Governors of the International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA), and all unilateral U.S. sanctions, both primary and secondary.

8 — The Islamic Republic of Iran reiterates that it will never produce nuclear weapons. The Islamic Republic of Iran and the United States have agreed that the fate of enriched material and the fate of all other mutually agreed nuclear-related issues, including Iran's nuclear needs, will be adequately addressed in a final agreement; the final agreement will confirm the provisions of this Article.

9 — The Islamic Republic of Iran and the United States agree that, pending a final agreement, they will maintain the status quo: Iran will maintain the status quo on its nuclear program, and the United States will not impose new sanctions on Iran or strengthen its forces in the region.

10 — The United States undertakes that immediately after the signing of this Memorandum of Understanding, and until the date of the lifting of sanctions, the United States Treasury Department will issue waivers for exports of Iranian crude oil, petrochemical products and their derivatives, and all related services, including banking, insurance, transportation, and the like.

11 — The United States undertakes that, in light of the progress of negotiations towards a final agreement, frozen or restricted funds and assets of the Islamic Republic of Iran will be released and made fully available. These funds, whether held in the master account or transferred, will be used for any final beneficiary payment determined by the Central Bank of the Islamic Republic of Iran and will be fully available for use. The United States undertakes to issue all necessary permits and licenses on this basis.

12 — The Islamic Republic of Iran and the United States agree that an implementation mechanism will be established to oversee the successful implementation of and future commitment to the Final Agreement.

13 — Following the signing of this Memorandum of Understanding, and upon receipt of assurances regarding the commencement of implementation of Articles 4, 5, 10, and 11 of this Memorandum of Understanding, and the continued implementation of these steps, the Islamic Republic of Iran and the United States will enter into negotiations for a Final Agreement solely with respect to the remaining Articles.

14 — The final agreement will be approved through a binding resolution of the UN Security Council.

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Comments:

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SEMAFOR

US officials downplay details of Washington-Tehran deal
Prashant Rao
Wed, June 17, 2026


US officials downplay details of Washington-Tehran deal

US officials sought to play down the details of a Washington-Tehran interim deal, as analysts said Iran appeared to have won major concessions.

Though not officially published, the widely seen draft grants the Islamic Republic the right to sell its oil on global markets immediately, alongside the prospect of significant further economic relief, indicating "Iran has emerged from the conflict in a stronger strategic position," the Institute for the Study of War said. American negotiators told CNN the document did not account for backroom agreements and was intentionally vague to leave space for future negotiation.

Politico's senior foreign affairs correspondent said the deal offered an "escape hatch," noting many agreements rely on "deceit or, at least, intentional confusion."

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LEBANON IZNOGOOD

Hanibaal Atheos

The much discussed apparent break between Trump and Netanyahu may reflect Trump's casual and cryptic antisemitism. He put up with Netanyahu because of the perception that Israel is a taboo not be touched in the US, fearing like most American politicians retribution by the powerful Zionist lobby. 

The two may also be playing good cop-bad cop with Arabs and Muslims in the hope for Trump not to lose Congress in November, and assuming it works and Trump retains control of Congress, he may then re-allow the Zionists to resume their killing fields in Palestine. 

But deep down, Trump's MAGA crowd, which includes Evangelical Christians, and all the racist white supremacist Christian nationalist terrorist organizations and other KKK-like movements, is fundamentally Jew-hating antisemitic. I recently heard one MAGA woman refer to the New York Times as the Jew York Times. Their "love" for Israel is not because they love the Jewish people. It is simply the result of the biblical brainwashing of America's protestant Christians into thinking that Jews and Christians share a Judeo-Christian culture when no such culture has ever existed. In fact, the history of the Western world since the Roman empire turned Christian circa 340 AD is replete with vicious hatred of the Jews (because they did not accept Jesus as the Messiah) onto which were appended all sorts of stereotypes and racist tropes that have never ceased, even to our present time. Antisemitism is a western (European then American) invention. There never was any antisemitism in the Arab-Muslim world (because they are both Semites and the object of western racism), until the creation of the artificial state of Israel, and even then it was not driven by Jew-hatred but by the liberation of Palestine from a brutal colonial rapist.

Given the anger that welled up in Trump for being led like an idiot into the war by Zionist Netanyahu, Trump's lashing out at Netanyahu and Israel is not a the spur of the moment reaction. It rather stems from a deeply seated hatred and condescension by a white protestant Anglo-Saxon against Jews that is rarely expressed in its authentic version in American everyday culture (except by radical extremist right-wing hatemongers) but more in a caricature, jocular play on stereotypes that is superficially sympathetic.  

Then again, a superficial break between Trump and Netanyahu is very useful to Trump for a number of reasons, including rallying the Arab-American and Muslim-American vote ahead of the November midterms as well as winning some fence-sitting independents. By insulting Netanyahu in public, Trump is gaining popularity across the Arab and Muslim worlds, without conceding anything substantive in the relationship between America and its Zionist colony in Palestine or on the ultimate issue of the Middle East: The fate of Palestine.

The real test of an unbiased, just and principled position of the US is not whether an imbecile like Trump hurls insults at politically-finished Netanyahu (who it seems will go to jail the moment his is booted out at the next Israeli elections). The real test is for America to finally stand up for justice to the Palestinian people who were forced to give up their country for the creation of Israel, and to stand against the ongoing rape, mayhem, genocide, ethnic cleansing and plunder the Zionists are conducting daily in the Palestinian West Bank and Gaza. The real test for America to be really great on the international stage is to force the barbarian ultra-religious terrorist government in Israel to recognize an independent Palestine. 

Like all US Republican Presidents: Trump to Subcontract Lebanon's Hezbollah File to Syria

The more things change, the more they stay the same.

US President Donald Trump is publicly proposing that Syria handle the thorny issue of Hezbollah in Lebanon, arguing that the Syrian military would conduct the operation more effectively and with fewer civilian casualties than Israeli forces. Speaking at the G7 summit  two days ago, Trump praised Syrian President Ahmed al-Sharaa (a Sunni Muslim and former Al-Qaeda terrorist) as "very capable" and claimed he personally helped install him, stating Syria should take over the responsibility of confronting Shiite Muslim Hezbollah in Lebanon in order to avoid Israel's further entrapment there. 

Analysts warn that a Syrian incursion in Lebanon could re-inflame civil unrest in Lebanon as was the case in 1975 when Syria was tasked by Nixon-Kissinger with "stabilizing" Lebanon after Yasser Arafat's near seizure of power in Beirut. A Syrian intervention in Lebanon would indirectly strengthen Hezbollah's position by framing it as a resistance against foreign occupation.

Beginning in the late 1960s-early 1970s, it was official US republican policy to gradually cede Lebanon to Syria as a way to appease the oil-rich Arab countries (Saudi, Kuwait, Iraq, Egypt, Libya...) who, at the time, were anti-western, anti-Israeli and pro-Palestinian, funding Yasser Arafat's PLO with money and weapons, imposing an oil embargo on the West, and dispatching thousands of radical Sunni Muslim clerics and terrorist operatives to western capitals to build mosques and madrassas.

In 1974, right after the October 1973 Arab-Israeli war, Republican criminals Nixon-Kissinger leased the Lebanese file (and its PLO cancer) to the Syrian Assad regime in exchange for Assad keeping quiet on his Israeli-occupied Golan Heights. What followed was the 1975 War in Lebanon during which the Lebanese people fought to prevent Syrian-backed Yasser Arafat from seizing power and turning Lebanon into a substitute Palestine.

Another republican crook, Ronald Reagan, fled Beirut like a coward after the Syrian-Iranian-Hezbollah alliance bombed and killed 241 of his US peacekeeping servicemen (220 Marines, 18 U.S. Navy sailors, and 3 U.S. Army soldiers) in their sleep near Beirut Airport on October 23, 1983. Reagan abandoned Lebanon to Syria and Iran which gained more ground: The Syrian army entered Beirut and the pro-western government of Amin Gemayel, which had negotiated the May 1983 peace treaty with Israel, was ordered by the Americans not to sign that treaty.

Yet another republican crook, George H W Bush and his Secretary of State James Baker the Turd again surrendered Lebanon to Syria in 1988 and 1991 in order to retrieve the US hostages held by Syria's ally Hezbollah and to induce Syria into joining the coalition against Saddam Hussein in Iraq. Syria toppled the legitimate Lebanese government and completed its control of Lebanon.

Now, Trump is following the same policy. Israel's current incursion inside Lebanon is costly, both operationally and strategically. Faced with mounting anti-Israeli sentiment worldwide, Trump wants to shield Israel from getting further entangled with Hezbollah in Lebanon and from turning Beirut into another Gaza. To save Jewish lives, Trump's Zionist advisers want Muslims to fight one another instead. Hezbollah fought Al-Sharaa for some 13 years during Syria's civil war (March 2011 through December 2024), and it makes perfect sense to give Al-Sharaa the opportunity to score a revenge victory against Hezbollah.

For Trump to propose sending Syrian troops inside Lebanon to fight Hezbollah in lieu of the incompetent Israelis, there would be a need for a pretext. Just as Yasser Arafat tried to overturn the Lebanese government in the early 1970s and turn Lebanon into a substitute Palestine, Hezbollah's Naim Qassem is increasingly adopting a threatening posture vis-à-vis the Lebanese government of Joseph Aoun and Nawaf Salam, accusing them of treason for breaking the taboo of negotiating with Israel. With Hezbollah completely isolated (its Syrian lifeline has dried up now with Assad gone and Al-Sharaa in charge in Damascus) and weakened, its only last resort is to topple the Lebanese government and seize power. That would be the perfect pretext to send in the Syrian army into Lebanon to "stabilize" the situation.

The Lebanese army is a useless military force - it is a glorified police force at best - by virtue of the sectarian composition of the country. With a snap of his fingers, Qassem can order the Shiite Muslim soldiers of the regular army to abandon their positions, take their weapons with them and join his Hezbollah militia. An identical scenario unfolded in 1976 when the Sunni Muslim soldiers of the Lebanese army abandoned their positions, took their weapons and joined Yasser Arafat's PLO insurrection against the Lebanese state.

A final word to the Maronite morons (Phares, Harb and others...who think of themselves as a Lebanese lobby) in Washington DC who never learn from their own history of being betrayed over and over again by the US Republicans. They buy into the Republican lies of protecting Lebanon's Christians, only to discover, time after time, that the Republicans - particularly Trump's Maronite Catholic-hating Evangelicals - don't give a hoot about Lebanon's Christians whom they consider to be the cheapest commodity in the Levant. As soon as their warmongering swashbuckling policy reaches a stalemate, which it always does because of their stupidity and incompetence, the Republican administrations ditch the Christians of Lebanon (their allies in theory) in favor of weightier, more affluent, wealthier, oil-rich and/or more powerful actors (often their theoretical enemies) in the region. 

Idiot Trump Brags: Iran Deal Says Iran Will NOT have Nuclear Weapons

1- Insane. What guarantees does the Idiot-in-Thief have that this is true? Iran can say many things in that memorandum of understanding, and we just believe it at face value? Putting something down on paper (UN resolutions, the JCPOA itself... ) have never guaranteed that their contents will be abided by. In fact, the US spent two years under Obama to make a deal with Iran, a deal that the US placed its "honorable" signature on, only to see Trump walk out of it and violate its provisions.

2- Stupid: Iran has all along said it doesn't want a nuclear weapon. It may be lying, but what achievement is it in this deal that repeats what Iran has always said all along?

3- Mindboggling:  Pimp Trump has agreed to assist in the reconstruction of what his forces (regular US and Zionist colonial mercenaries from Palestine) destroyed in Iran by forcing his Arab Gulf Emirate Girls in their virginial flowing robes, who spent the past four months shrieking like damsels in distress because they host U.S. military bases that were hit by the Iranians during the war, to set up a $300 billion Iran reconstruction fund. The Arab Gulf hoes of Pimp Trump will have to pay for the reconstruction of their own Iranian enemy's country. It's like asking the French after WWII to fund the reconstruction of Germany that the US destroyed.

3- Treacherous: The US is now in open conflict with Israel over the Lebanese branch of the Iran-US deal. Iran says the deal requires a cessation of hostilities by Israel in Lebanon, and a withdrawal of Israeli forces from the entire swath of territory south of the Litani-Zahrani rivers. Which potentially means that Hezbollah can go back, alive and kicking, to its hogwash "liberation terrorism". But the Zionist criminal barbarian Netanyahu, who promised his desperate people that Hezbollah will be annihilated, says Israel will ​keep its forces in southern Lebanon and retain the right to combat ‌Hezbollah. It's so nice to see the new Made-in-America Middle East restored to the familiar 60-year-old warmth of endless warfare between Israelis and Hezbollah and the continued agony of Lebanon.

A U.S. official broke ranks with the unofficial US position and a publicly stated Iranian position that an Israeli withdrawal from Lebanon is included in the deal, by saying that an Israeli withdrawal from south Lebanon was NOT a condition of the deal. Hopefully, Trump's masterful eloquence and clarity in the English language will clarify this sticky point by Friday when he promised to publish the contents of the deal.

Yup, we have to wait until Friday when the Moron-in-Chief, plopped like an elephant in his underwear on his bed at 2 am chomping on burgers and soda, will release the sinister details of what looks like a victorious "surrender document by the US".😨😨

Trump's deal with Iran pushes everything the Imbecile and his Zionist handlers wanted from the war to some indefinite future. MEANING: we are back where we started, and in fact we are worse off because during the 11 years since the Imbecile walked out of Obama's JCPOA, Iran has strengthened itself and has acquired more nuclear capabilities. 

Trump thought he would launch the war (February 28), and within days, a couple of weeks at the most, the Iranian regime would have collapsed per Trump's own requirement of "unconditional surrender", and he can declare victory just in time for his birthday, his UFC Fight on the white house lawn, and all his other narcissistic bullshit ... then roar into a November elections victory. But it looks more like the US caved in "unconditionally", or perhaps for a few crumbs (open the Strait of Hormuz) that never existed before the war.

Trump's "deal" with Iran - a mere memorandum of understanding, not a peace agreement, not a binding convention - is an admission of an abject failure by the Imbecile-in-Chief who was fooled by Netanyahu into waging an unwinnable war. And he agreed to everything Iran wanted, just so Iran opens the Strait of Hormuz and for gasoline prices in the forlorn peasant middle America, like Ames, Iowa, or Omaha, Nebraska, come down a bit by the time of the midterm elections. But it's too late.

That is all what the Imbecile's mind cares about: slam on the brakes on the looming disaster for him and his republican shills in November... And they think they can reverse the damages done by a demented senile idiot over the pat two years. The American people are smarter than that. Only the MAGA herd of diehard idiots will go down with the sinking ship.

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Trump says memo states clearly Iran will not have a nuclear weapon

By Steve Holland, Bo Erickson and Doina Chiacu

Évian-les-Bains, France, June 16 (Reuters) - U.S. President Donald Trump on ‌Tuesday told reporters at the G7 meetings in ‌France that the memorandum of understanding with Iran states clearly that Iran ​will not have a nuclear weapon.

Trump said that he will release the text of the U.S.-Iran memorandum in a formal setting.

The president also said he likes the idea of ‌sending the Iran deal ⁠to Congress for review, a request by some Republican lawmakers.

"I never thought about sending it, ⁠never even thought about it, but I will," Trump told reporters. "I will send it to Congress. I like the idea."

The ​U.S. deal ​with Iran is an ​agreement to hash out details ‌in the coming weeks.

"I think it's going to go pretty quickly," Trump told reporters about the next phase of negotiations with Iran, stipulated with a 60-day deadline.

"Iran wants to get it done. They have to get back to ‌business, and the relationship is ​now normalized, so I think it's ​going to go pretty ​quickly," Trump told reporters during his meeting ‌with Mohamed bin Zayed Al ​Nahyan, the president ​of the United Arab Emirates, on the sidelines of the G7.

"Could go faster, could take longer too, but ​it could ‌go fast."

(Reporting by Steve Holland in Evian, France, and ​Bo Erickson, Susan Heavey and Doina Chiacu in ​Washington; editing by Michelle Nichols)

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Broad skepticism over Iran-US truce
Prashant Rao
Tue, June 16, 2026

Skepticism abounded among allies, officials, and executives over the details and durability of the US truce with Iran.

The Trump administration has insisted the Strait of Hormuz — which has in effect been closed for months — will reopen by Friday, but no official document has been released outlining the deal between Washington and Tehran.

European powers have voiced hesitation, notably over:- whether Israel will cease its offensive in Lebanon, an Iranian demand; - the CIA director has reportedly questioned Iran's willingness to make concessions;- Republican US senators have been reluctant to praise the deal; - and Israel fears the agreement takes the pressure off Iran. - Meanwhile, shipping executives say it will take months for traffic to reach pre-war levels.
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By Steve Holland and Jana Choukeir

EVIAN-LES-BAINS, France/DUBAI, June 16 (Reuters) - Doubts swirled around the U.S.-Iran interim deal to end the war in the Middle East with warnings that shipping and energy exports could take weeks to recover, although U.S. President Donald Trump said on Tuesday the text would be made public soon.

The interim deal would extend a tenuous ceasefire announced in ‌April by another 60 days and reopen the Strait of Hormuz, which Iran has effectively blocked since the U.S. and Israel attacked Iran in February.

Trump said the text of the deal states ‌clearly that Tehran will not have a nuclear weapon, and the full agreement would be made public in a formal setting in a few days.

Speaking at the G7 meetings in France, Trump added that he liked the idea of sending the Iran deal to Congress ​for review, a request by some Republican lawmakers.

Negotiators would address difficult issues like the future of Iran's nuclear programme during the next phase of talks, which Iranian Foreign Minister Abbas Araqchi said would start in Switzerland on Friday after the formal signing of the framework deal.

Two other issues that Trump and Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu used to justify the war - ending Iran's support for regional armed proxies and curbing its missile programme - are not thought to be on the agenda for those negotiations.

"Iran wants to get it done," Trump told reporters about the next phase of negotiations with Iran. "They have to get back to business, and the relationship is now normalized, so I think it's going to ‌go pretty quickly." Earlier he described the deal as "a wall to a nuclear ⁠weapon" for Iran.

Vice President JD Vance and Iran's top negotiator Mohammad Baqer Qalibaf are expected to attend Friday's formal signing.

FINAL DEAL YET TO TAKE SHAPE

Oil prices slid more than 2% to new three-month lows on Tuesday, a day after tumbling nearly 5% following news of the deal, though industry officials say Middle East oil and gas output ⁠will take months to fully recover.

Iranian President Masoud Pezeshkian wrote on social media Monday that the interim agreement was an "important step" toward stopping the fighting but noted a final deal for a lasting truce "has yet to take shape."

Vance told CNN that the signed memorandum was a "very general document." Details would be released over the next two days, U.S. officials said.

Both sides still face pressures following a conflict that killed at least 7,000 people, mostly in Iran and Lebanon, and upended global energy ​markets.

The ​accord exposes Trump to criticism from within his own party, while Iran's leaders could face the risk of renewed protests if ​they fail to alleviate economic pressures after a destructive war.

U.S. and Iranian officials say ‌the deal could eventually deliver substantial economic benefits to Iran by lifting sanctions and unfreezing foreign assets. It could also set up a $300 billion reconstruction fund, paid for by neighbouring Gulf states that host U.S. military bases and were hit by Iranian attacks during the war.

U.S. officials, speaking on condition of anonymity, said Iran would have to satisfy U.S. demands never to build a nuclear weapon and cut off support for militias like Hezbollah in Lebanon in order to get those benefits.

Iranian officials, who have always denied intending to build a nuclear weapon, say they have given up little by agreeing to resume diplomatic discussions over Iran's uranium enrichment programme that were interrupted by the war.

CAUTION OVER SHIPPING

Both sides say the Strait of Hormuz, which normally carries about one-fifth of the world's trade in oil and liquefied natural gas, will be open from Friday.

On Tuesday, Iranian state television reported ‌operations to lift its maritime blockade, while stressing that vessels must still coordinate with Iran's Revolutionary Guards.

Trump said earlier that ​tankers were starting to move out of the strait, and Reuters reported that the U.S. - which had imposed its own blockade on ​Iranian ports - had been overseeing scores of secretive ship-to-ship oil transfers to keep Gulf energy exports ​flowing.

The U.S. said the strait will be open toll-free for 60 days and it would expect that provision to be part of a final agreement. Iran has suggested it ‌will retain control with Oman over the strait.

Shippers say a return to normal traffic ​will be gradual.

One concern is the possible presence of mines ​in the narrow waterway between Iran and Oman. A thorough minesweeping operation would "take weeks to months", an official with Greek maritime security company Diaplous told Reuters on Tuesday.

UNCERTAINTY OVER LEBANON

The conflict between U.S. ally Israel and the Iran-allied Hezbollah militia in Lebanon, which has uprooted 1.2 million people, remains another complication.

Iran has said the deal requires a full cessation of hostilities there, but Netanyahu said Israel would ​keep its forces in southern Lebanon and retain the right to respond to ‌Hezbollah attacks.

Trump has expressed frustration at Israel's military campaign, saying on Tuesday he was "not happy" with the way Israel had handled itself. Israel has not directly participated in the peace talks ​with Iran.

A U.S. official said an Israeli withdrawal from Lebanon, which it invaded in March after Hezbollah joined the war, was not a condition of the deal.

Araqchi said Israeli attacks must ​stop immediately.

(Reporting by Reuters bureaus; Writing by Stephen Coates and Aidan Lewis; Editing by Raju Gopalakrishnan, Alexandra Hudson)