Iran Update: Strikes & Talks. Mamdani Shuns Israel Parade. Delaney Hall: New Front in Immigration Battle. Tomorrow: California Votes. Bill Gates Has an Image Problem. Teflon Nazi Doesn’t. More
The U.S. approach to Iran proceeds on two fronts: negotiations and air strikes. The Wall Street Journal reports:
The U.S. and Iran exchanged fresh blows over the weekend, with the U.S. striking what it said were air-defense radar and drone sites and Kuwait coming under attack after Iran said it was retaliating.
The exchange of fire came as the two foes were working to hammer out a deal to wind down the fighting. President Trump indicated a deal was close ahead of the weekend, but mediators have said issues like nuclear commitments and the timing and scale of any financial relief remained unresolved.
President Trump requested edits to the proposed deal over the weekend, warning that he will finish the job if talks collapse. The president touted an apparent Iranian nuclear concession on Fox’s “My View with Lara Trump.” Supreme Leader Mojtaba Khamenei (who may be seriously hors de combat—we don’t know) reportedly is attempting to undercut Trump and the U.S. Victor Davis Hanson, meanwhile, said on Fox last night that Iran is “playing a strange game,” while the Jerusalem Post reports that Iran’s President Masoud Pezeshkian (who he?) has offered to resign:
An anonymous official told Iran International that [President Pezeshkian ‘s] letter had called out the fact that the Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps had effectively taken over large portions of the government, and that the president and other high-ranking officials had been cut out of vital decision-making.
Pezeshkian, the letter emphasized, was unable to run the government or fulfill his responsibilities under the circumstances, and as such, requested to resign.
Whatever is happening, the stock market seemed to like it early this morning.
The New York Post cover this morning features Mayor Zohran Mamdani on his bicycle with the headline “Cycle of Hate,” a reference to Hizzoner’s skipping the Israel parade and going riding instead. Columnist Michael Goodwin called Mamdani’s boycotting the parade “a badge of dishonor”:
With his decision to boycott Sunday’s Israel Day parade, Mayor Mamdani has crossed a point of no return.
Coming after his relentless criticism of Israel and recent embrace of the historically- inaccurate Palestinian version of the Jewish state’s creation, he is setting a dangerous new low at City Hall.
Why would anybody be surprised? Mamdani pledged to arrest Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu if he set foot in New York, citing the International Criminal Court, which the U.S. does not recognize, as his authority. Mamdani told the voters who he is, and they elected him. Similarly, it is not at all surprising that a self-described Democratic Socialist might want to confiscate apartment buildings.
California’s high-stakes primary is tomorrow. LA mayoral and gubernatorial candidates made a big weekend push. The Wall Street Journal’s Tunku Varadarajan profiled reality star and this year’s most surprising up-and-coming LA mayor’s candidate, Spencer Pratt. The headline is “Spencer Pratt Gives Los Angeles a Chance to Face Reality“:
Spencer Pratt wasn’t mugged by reality, but it literally burned his house down. He’s now running for the hideous job of Los Angeles mayor, a citizen-avenger who wants justice….
The loss of his house was his political awakening. …
Mr. Pratt … says: “I’m not going to have a word to say about anything but L.A.” The “true failures” that afflict the city “are choices made in the city of L.A.”
These begin with the coddling of “the homeless-industrial complex.”
The other leading candidates are incumbent Mayor Karen Bass (rapped in National Review for incompetence by veteran journalist John Fund) and Councilmember Nithya Raman, whose recent visit to a Potemkin homeless encampment didn’t go that well. New polls have former Biden HHS Secretary Xavier Becerra leading the California Governor’s race, with Republican Steve Hilton and climate change billionaire Tom Steyer snapping at his heels. Hilton’s bid is strong, especially for a Republican. The governor’s race is a “hot mess” for Dems, according to the WSJ.
It is abundantly clear that having Donald Trump as president for our country’s 250th birthday is too much for some folks. “Freedom 250 Could’ve Been Great,” writes the Wall Street Journal’s Matthew Hennessey, if “critics” hadn’t made it “radioactive” for performers to attend:
In the places where music and movies come from, the worst thing you can be is an avowed Republican.
Some will say it isn’t true. They will point to Jon Voight and Kid Rock as counterexamples. But any honest person knows it’s indisputable. You can be a lot of other things. You can be a wastrel or provocateur. You can have gang ties or a criminal conviction. You can be well-known to the American public as a freak, molester, addict or cult member. You can be any or all of those things and keep your endorsements, hang on to your record contract, open a movie or tour the country every summer. But if you give even the tiniest hint of being a Republican, you can kiss the big money goodbye.
President Trump responded—predictably—to A-list performers ditching anniversary events by saying that he is “bigger than Elvis” and promising to deliver a “big speech” to replace “third-rate” artists. Ms. Must doesn’t know what former Vice President Mike Pence thinks of Elvis, but Pence’s criticisms of his former boss are clear. You can find them in Pence’s “A Republican Time for Choosing” in the Wall Street Journal. Pence warns against the “embrace progressivism in the guise of populism.”
Meanwhile, “Democrats Promise to Wreck the Supreme Court” is the headline on a Wall Street Journal editorial. They propose increasing the number of justices to 13, which would tilt the Court left, and handing control of the docket to appellate judges. Rep. Jamie Raskin is spearheading the effort.
Riots Live in Darkness. Rolling Stone calls the protest at Delaney Hall, an ICE facility in Newark, NJ, “the New Front in Trump’s Immigration War.” When I see the protests on TV, all I can think of is how dangerous it must be to a besieged ICE officer. Here’s Rolling Stone’s lead:
For hours, the masked protesters and masked ICE agents have stood staring at each other, separated by a thin strip of asphalt. At the edges of the crowd, New Jersey state troopers stand around, arms crossed, looking bored. Daylight hours at Newark’s Delaney Hall immigration detention center are quieter, the crowds thinner, the officers behind the gates more relaxed. It’s when, until recently, families could still go in and out, visiting their relatives inside. But when night falls, things change.
“When sunset happens, they’re going to push us into that cage and mace the fuck out of us,” says a street medic we’ll call Egg. “When they come, they’ll come hard and fast.”
The cage is a space that NJ Governor Mikie Sherrill, a frequenter of the scene, set up, supposedly to quell the crowd. I’ll let you decide, Gentle Reader, whether peaceful protectors are maced, for no discernible reason.
Great City Journal piece titled “The Truth about Slavery in America,” by Jason Riley. “The institution was neither unique to the United States nor central to its growth and prosperity,” Riley argues.
A Slave to His Image. Billionaire philanthropist Bill Gates spent years crafting his image. Now, according to a WSJ story, it’s cracking:
Bill Gates’s employees have spent years carefully cultivating his image—down to keeping a custom-size mannequin to test his outfits for different days of the week.
His carefully crafted image has been shattered as more details of Gates’s association with the late Jeffrey Epstein have spilled into public view, challenging prior efforts by the 70-year-old to downplay his relationship with the sex offender. In a February town hall with foundation employees, Gates owned up to two affairs with Russian women referenced in Epstein’s emails.
Some people familiar with the matter said they heard about his admission to staff with disbelief: In his divorce proceedings, allegations related to more than 20 affairs had come up.
The Teflon Nazi. River Page writes at The Free Press that the criticisms of Maine senatorial hopeful Graham Platner don’t stick because “his troubles strike many as relatable.” HUH? … Not Doing the Cotswolds this summer: Hasan Piker and his uncle Cenk Uygu. They blame the Jews.
