Strikes During the Ceasefire. NJ Governor’s Memorial Day: Stunt at ICE Facility. Update on Celebrity Illegal Kilmar Abrego. Are Luigi Mangione’s Babes Really Witches? Pope’s Encyclical. More
We awaken this morning to find Iran once again dominating the headlines. Amid ongoing negotiations, the U.S. has resumed strikes, while maintaining that the ceasefire remains in effect. Iran’s Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps vows to strike back:
In Monday’s exchange of fire, the U.S. sank two Revolutionary Guard ships it said were attempting to lay mines in the Strait of Hormuz. Iran responded by launching surface-to-air missiles at U.S. planes, prompting American attacks on missile launchers near Bandar Abbas, a U.S. official said.
President Trump indicated earlier Monday that talks aimed at producing a longer cease-fire had been productive, but warned again that he was willing to order more strikes against Iran. He also extended the scope of his diplomatic ambition, seeking not only an end-of-war agreement but also a pact to normalize relations between Israel and the broader Middle East.
Washington and Tehran face pressure for a deal, with the U.S. seeking to end an unpopular war and Iran needing financial relief.
Financial relief for Iran? Raise your hand if you saw that coming. An editorial in the Wall Street Journal worries that after a brief shooting war from which the U.S. “can claim real achievements,” President Trump might bail out the Iranian regime:
The basic problem lies with ending U.S. pressure before dismantling the nuclear program. If the blockade ends and Iran can sell its oil, all that’s left to coerce it into nuclear concessions is the threat of renewed war….
Much of the press wants to debate whether [what we know about a Trump administration deal) amounts to a better or worse deal than Barack Obama’s in 2015. The major difference in our view is the military strikes: Fordow, Natanz and Isfahan were severely damaged in June. Enrichment has been stopped, at least for now….
We’d add that a bad deal would leave [President Trump] worse off politically, even if gas prices fall. Even a half victory by Iran would hurt America’s standing—and Mr. Trump’s.
Iran’s regime went into this war facing domestic political and economic crises. War has made these worse. Saving such a regime now with an economic bailout would be the real betrayal—of the U.S. interest even more than the Iranian people.
Wall Street Journal foreign affairs guru Walter Russell Mead’s column yesterday, before we knew the strikes were resuming, bears the headline “Peace May Not Be at Hand in Iran,” because the two sides remain far apart in their basic requirements. President Trump has broadened his framework to include an expansion of the Abraham Accords and a vision for a new Middle East. More on the strikes and negotiations from Fox Digital.
Today is the runoff in Texas to see whether Senator John Cornyn or Texas AG Kenneth Paxton will run against rising Dem star James Talarico in the general election. President Trump “flexed his muscles” and endorsed Paxton. The Paxton endorsement heightened tensions with Senate Republicans and could hand the nomination to the man considered weaker in the general election. Cornyn is not going quietly.
Meanwhile, the Paxton endorsement (among other things) was cited in a hard-hitting Wall Street Journal editorial headlined “Trump Has Lost the Governing Plot.” “His personal obsessions and campaign of retribution are damaging his Presidency and his party,” the editors argue. The $1.8 billion “anti-weaponization” fund was a key sticking point in a raucous Thursday meeting between the administration and Senate Republicans.
While most Americans were commemorating the sacrifices by the brave men and women of our military yesterday, New Jersey Governor Mikie Sherrill had something more important (to her) to do on Memorial Day—pulling an anti-ICE stunt at a Newark facility, as tense protests raged:
New Jersey Gov. Mikie Sherrill’s attempt to gain access to a Newark immigrant detention center is being slammed as a “political stunt” as a standoff between federal agents and anti-ICE protesters took hold outside the facility.
Tensions rose both in and outside Delaney Hall over the weekend, as a hunger and labor strike among inmates carried on for a fourth day.
“Governor Sherrill’s visit to Delaney Hall is nothing more than a political stunt on Memorial Day when visitation is currently suspended due to riots outside the facility,” a Department of Homeland Security spokesperson told Fox News Digital.
Meanwhile, celebrity illegal Kilmar Abrego Garcia has chalked up another courtroom win. Mike Davis, founder of the Article III project, writes that it must be repealed. Davis calls attention to the strong-ish evidence that the Democrats’ patron saint of human trafficking is not the model citizen of MSM lore.
More Evidence that All Is Not Well. “The Witches of Luigi Mangione” is the headline of a John Kass column. Kass writes:
But [witches] began to appear in our lives, as they had appeared in the past, when they publicly poured out their hysterical sexual fantasies and pathetic love for their heartthrob with those Italian eyebrows, the killer Luigi Mangione, the rich boy of privilege who stalked then shot Health Care executive Bryan Thompson in the back.
Mangione is the pretty privileged boy who murdered Brian Thompson, the CEO of United Health Care. Thompson was fatally shot outside a Midtown Manhattan hotel in December 2024. Mangione, who was apprehended days later in Pennsylvania, is currently facing both federal and state murder and weapons charges.
But what explains the hysteria of the witches?
It is a special kind of hysteria, this hysteria of women attracted by the demonic. This is the crucible where witches are made.
Do you breathe a little easier when you know your doc graduated from a top-notch medical school? Maybe you shouldn’t. “DOJ: By Its Own Admission, Yale Med School Illegally Discriminates Against White, Asian Applicants” is a headline at The Federalist:
That [Department of Justice] letter presents evidence that black and Hispanic students were significantly more likely to be admitted than white and Asian students with the same MCAT scores and grade point averages, an outcome that “cannot be explained by a coincidence.” Specifically, “Yale’s use of race resulted in a Black applicant being as much as 29 times higher odds of getting an interview for admission than an equally strong Asian applicant with similar academic credentials.” …
A prominent surgeon, Terry Simpson, seemed to confuse racial background with the merit of overcoming challenges when he argued on X: “If you have 100 applicants from privileged, high-performing educational pipelines with nearly identical scores, resumes, research access, tutoring, and opportunities, it is not irrational to also value the applicant who achieved similar academic success despite poverty, instability, underfunded schools, family hardship, or lack of institutional advantages.”
Nothing like a reality star to inject some reality into politics. Los Angeles mayoral candidate Spencer Pratt said that Los Angeles doesn’t have a homeless problem—it has a drug problem:
“We don’t have a housing problem. We have a drug problem. We cannot solve a drug problem with more overpriced housing scams,” he said in a video posted online. “The DEA will tell you that over 90% of the homeless population in L.A. are hardcore illicit drug users.”
Pratt’s plan calls for ending taxpayer-funded distribution of drug paraphernalia, enforcing drug laws without exception, and making use of California’s new expanded civil commitment/conservatorship framework (SB 43) to move homeless addicts into mandatory rehab facilities.
A Pratt win would spell bad news for the Left, whose primary purpose is gaining more money for social programs and then administering the programs badly.
Pope Leo XIV has written a new encyclical titled “Magnifica humanitas” (Magnificent humanity). The Holy Father addresses AI and asks whether we’re heading for Babel (bad) or Jerusalem (good). Prominent Catholic scholar George Weigel gives it a good review (“a great and energizing hope”) while Daniel McCarthy chides the Holy Father for a “Vatican tech flop: Pope Leo’s AI crusade needs Trump — not the UN”. I wonder if any Pope ever did an encyclical on Gutenberg. Just asking.
This headline caught my eye: “Dog accidentally fires shotgun, striking woman yards away during chaotic gas station stop.” Wow! I was glad that the pooch did it accidentally. The canine’s victim expects a full recovery.
