President Trump announced on Tuesday evening that he was pausing the day-old U.S. operation to escort commercial ships through the Strait of Hormuz “for a short period of time,” citing what he said was “great progress” toward an agreement with Iran.

His announcement, in a social media post, came only hours after Secretary of State Marco Rubio asserted that the United States had concluded combat operations against Iran and was fully focused on the new mission. Only three commercial ships have managed to make it through the strait since the United States began the operation, dubbed Project Freedom, on Monday.

The president’s sudden U-turn on the escort mission was just his latest over the course of the war, which is now in its third month. When the U.S. Central Command was asked for comment on the change, a spokesman referred questions to the White House.

Mr. Rubio, briefing reporters at the White House earlier, had expanded on Mr. Trump’s assertion last week that he did not need to seek approval from Congress to continue the war in Iran beyond a 60-day legal limit, and said: “The operation is over: Epic Fury — as the president notified Congress — we’re done with that stage of it. We’re now onto this Project of Freedom.”

The war is in a shaky cease-fire, and ship traffic in the strait is a major point of contention. Iran, whose drones and missiles threaten both shipping and neighboring countries, has warned repeatedly that vessels can pass through the strait only with its permission.

At the same time, the U.S. blockade is keeping Iranian ships from crossing. Mr. Trump said in his post on Tuesday evening that the blockade would “remain in full force and effect.”

Commercial traffic is at a near-total standstill. Two commercial vessels crossed the strait under U.S. military protection on Monday and only one on Tuesday — a trickle compared to before the war, when around 130 vessels a day made the passage.

On Tuesday, the United States and Iran made competing claims about having control of the strait, which remains effectively closed. And an American ally, the United Arab Emirates, said that it had come under attack by Iranian missiles and drones for the second day in a row.

So — let’s sum up where things stand in Operation Trump’s Head Up HIs Ass:

Trump humiliated Rubio by having him defend Project Freedom to the hilt at a presser today, only to unilaterally suspend the “project” this evening

Per the Eurasia Group, Trump pulled the plug on it because 1) Iran sank a South Korean tanker and nearly took out two other ships despite US naval protection, and 2) Trump was informed by a liaison to the international shipping insurance consortium that none of their members would support it without Iran agreeing not to shoot.

In other words, Iran holds all the cards to get Trump out of this quagmire. He has to bend the knee. Is he smart enough to realize that, cut a deal and move on?

Do you ever wonder why conservative Evangelicals don’t seem to be bothered by the moral bankruptcy of Trump?

https://signalpress.blogspot.com/2026/05/this-is-kind-of-leadership-found-in.html

 

 

 

It’s long been acceptable for those of us outside the government to make the statement in the title line. The US government has never made that statement officially.

That denial of reality distorts all analyses of the Middle East.

Here are things that are little said by analysts and pundits, or said not at all:

• Iran’s nuclear program is a response to Israel’s.
• Israel wants to destroy Iran’s nuclear program to preserve its nuclear monopoly.
• In addition to its conventional superiority, Israel’s nuclear arsenal gives it dominance in its wars.
• Will Bibi Netanyahu feel it necessary to use nuclear weapons against Iran’s enriched uranium?
• Iran sent a couple of warning shots toward Israel’s nuclear complex during the recent hostilities. What would it take for Israel to respond with a nuclear weapon?

In any other theater, statements like these would be part of a normal analysis. You can variously substitute other nations’ names to make sentences that have appeared in the news. The bulleted sentences may have appeared in a few news outlets, but they have not been subjects of general discussion or and seldom are part of analyses.

The first bulleted point, for example, shifts the power dynamic from the way Iran’s nuclear program has mostly been discussed. Independent analysts, including me, have not given Israel’s nuclear arsenal the weight it deserves because of the historical silence around it. Avoiding the subject because one may be attacked or ignored warps one’s thinking.

Thirty House Democrats have now written a letter to Marco Rubio, urging that the administration acknowledge Israel’s nuclear weapons program (WaPo gift link). The letter expresses concern that, with the US fighting alongside Israel, Israel’s nuclear capability and doctrine of use should be known and part of US plans.

The letter asks some very specific questions.

1. What nuclear weapons capability does Israel have?

2. Please provide information on any nuclear weapons systems that Israel fields, including warheads and launchers.

3. Regarding fissile material production capability: · Does Israel currently possess enrichment capabilities, and at what level? · Does the Negev Nuclear Research Center at Dimona produce fissile material? If so, please provide information on the amounts assessed to be produced and their use. · Does the Negev Nuclear Research Center at Dimona produce plutonium? If so, please provide information on the amounts assessed to be produced and their use.

4. Has Israel communicated to U.S. officials any nuclear doctrine, red lines, or thresholds for nuclear use in the context of the current conflict with Iran?

5. Has the administration received any assurances from Israel that nuclear weapons will not be used?

6. Have there been any indications of Israel planning to use or deploy nuclear weapons during the recent Iran conflict or during other conflicts?

7. What is the United States government’s assessment of the risks of radioactive harm to U.S. citizens and personnel in the region that could result from any further strikes on the Negev Nuclear Research Center or any other nuclear sites in Israel?

Three additional questions address the policies of the administration regarding releasing information about Israel’s nuclear weapons program.

The letter starts from some very basic facts. A great deal more material and speculation on Israel’s nuclear weapons program is available publicly. Avner Cohen, mentioned in the article, has written two books on the program and its politics, Israel and the Bomb and The Worst-Kept Secret, for example.

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Back in the 1970’s there were US intell reports that Israel was testing nuclear weapons in South Africa.

South Africa is the only nation to have developed nuclear weapons and subsequently voluntarily dismantled them. Between the 1970s and 1989, the apartheid regime covertly built six functional “gun-type” atomic bombs. The program was dismantled in the early 1990s, and the country signed the Non-Proliferation Treaty (NPT) in 1991.

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The Vela incident was an atmospheric nuclear explosion that occurred on 22 September 1979, near the South African territory of Prince Edward Islands in the Indian Ocean, roughly midway between Africa and Antarctica. This explosion is widely believed to have been an undeclared test of an Israeli nuclear weapon on the ocean surface, carried out with assistance from South Africa.[1][2][3] Initially detected as a double flash of light by an American Vela Hotel satellite, further meteorological satellite, hydroacoustic,[2] and radionuclide data support the event’s identification as an atmospheric nuclear explosion.[4][5][6][7]

In 1980, US President Jimmy Carter wrote in his diary, “We have a growing belief among our scientists that the Israelis did indeed conduct a nuclear test explosion in the ocean near the southern end of Africa.”[8] Experts have suggested the weapon tested was a neutron bomb and/or nuclear artillery round, and that Israel may have carried out other nuclear tests.[3

President Donald Trump is hoping to exert enormous influence on Indiana’s primary election on Tuesday as part of a “revenge” campaign against defiant Republican state lawmakers, but early indicators suggest that the effort may have already landed with a thud.

Last year, Trump pushed hard for Indiana state Republicans to redraw their congressional district map in a way that would benefit the GOP, much as he successfully did in Texas. Trump’s efforts were met with “stiff” opposition, however, leading Trump and his allies to launch a multimillion-dollar “revenge campaign” to oust the GOP lawmakers who defied him.

That campaign got underway last week on Wednesday when the conservative advocacy organization Turning Point USA set up a “get-out-the-vote operation” for a Trump-backed candidate challenging Republican state Sen. Greg Good, who was placed on the “president’s revenge list.”

“They had lawn signs and fliers. A Spotify playlist titled ‘Trump Rally’ blared on a speaker at the outdoor Fairbanks Park amphitheater on the banks of the Wabash River,” reads a report from NOTUS published on Monday. The event, however, failed to generate the enthusiasm that Trump and his allies were likely hoping for. “Four people showed up, three of whom were part of the same family,” NOTUS reported.

For a family that has built an entire political brand on demanding papers from everyone else, the Trump family remains totally allergic to producing their own.

That hypocrisy is nowhere more glaring than in the public mythology surrounding Melania Trump. We are told to see her as the immaculate immigrant success story: the beautiful girl from a small Slovenian town who arrived in America, followed every rule, worked hard, married well, and became first lady. It is a tidy fairy tale. It is also a story with some very conspicuous holes.

Melanija Knavs was born in Novo Mesto in 1970 and raised in Sevnica, a small town in what was then Yugoslavia, where her father, a member of the Communist Party, sold car parts and her mother worked as a seamstress. She began modeling as a young girl in Slovenia and in 1992, she was runner-up in Jana magazine’s “Look of the Year” contest. She subsequently signed with a modeling agency before spending the following years working in Europe.

Much of Melanija’s — or Melania’s, as she soon renamed herself — story is self-manufactured. In 2016, when Trump was first running for president, The New Yorker (typically no slouch in the investigative journalism department) wrote a story about her that actually claimed Melania was “a model with the past of a nun” and quoted Slovenian gossip columnists as saying that she seemed to be a virgin when she met Trump.

In fact, Melania was hardly a nun. Her Slovenian biographer claims that she had a sexual relationship with Peter Butoln, who went on to serve as an advisor to several Slovenian prime ministers, and Jure Zorčič, the son of a former director of a Yugoslavian basketball team. Siniša Glumičić, a Croatian plastic surgeon who says that he operated on Melania and whom the biography describes as “THE Croatian plastic surgeon, performing operations for the Balkan jet setting elite,” also boasted about having an “intimate” relationship with her. She also allegedly dated Alen Kobilica, the only Slovenian male “supermodel,” and Gregor Erbežnik, a mall owner who was seeing her at the same time as he was dating the woman who would become his wife.

Slovenian journalists have consistently connected the dots about Melania’s life in ways American media is incapable of doing. Here is Slovenske Novice in 2016:

There is more to be mined here. Melania’s story does not add up — and it never did. She has benefitted from a credulous American press corps that has taken her word, the word of her husband, and the word of her friend (and former Jeffrey Epstein associate) Paolo Zampoli to create a back story that is very much in dispute.

Hegseths “senior advisor”, Tim Parlatore, has no security clearance, and was Hegseth’s personal lawyer in his sexual assault case.

He now has a desk right outside of Hegseths office in the Pentagon.

At least one member of Congress senses criminal activity.  Jason Crow is a Democratic U.S. Representative for Colorado’s 6th Congressional District, first elected in 2018 and serving since January 2019. A former Army Ranger with three combat tours in Iraq and Afghanistan, Crow focuses on national security, foreign policy, and veterans’ issues, serving on the House Intelligence and Armed Services Committees.

Kegsbreath looked like he was pissing in his pants.

 

 

 

Louisiana Republicans abolished a local office to prevent an exonerated man they had sought to keep imprisoned from taking office:

 Louisiana Republicans have eliminated an elected position days before an exoneree who overwhelmingly won the New Orleans-based clerk seat was set to take office.

Republican Gov. Jeff Landry quietly signed legislation abolishing the longstanding Orleans Parish clerk of criminal court position into law Thursday, according to Louisiana Secretary of State spokesperson Trey Williams.

Republicans say wiping away the office is a consolidation effort meant to make the local judicial system more efficient and cut costs. But Democrats describe the change as government overreach — arguing that it infringes on a predominately Black parish’s decision at the polls.

Calvin Duncan, who spent nearly 30 years behind bars for a crime he did not commit, easily won election to the criminal court clerk position in November, beating the incumbent and earning more than two-thirds of the vote. He had been set to take office next Monday and has asked a federal judge to allow him to take office as scheduled.

And needless to say Landry could not me more excited about Pitchfork Sam Alito’s nullification of the Voting Rights Act:

Louisiana has suspended its upcoming primaries for the U.S. House, following Wednesday’s U.S. Supreme Court ruling that the state’s congressional map is an “unconstitutional racial gerrymander.”

The rest of Louisiana’s primaries, including for U.S. Senate, will proceed as scheduled, with early voting starting Saturday and the primary date set for May 16.

It’s unclear when the House races will continue. In an executive order, Gov. Jeff Landry, a Republican, says the contests are suspended “until July 15, 2026 or until such time as determined by the Legislature.”

What the Governor meant to say is this:     “Elections are suspended until we can ensure that the Black voters in our state are disenfranchised as thoroughly as possible.”

Donald Trump Says US Will Take Over Cuba ‘Almost Immediately’

Source: Newsweek

Published May 02, 2026 at 06:03 AM EDT updated May 02, 2026 at 06:04 AM EDT

President Donald Trump said Friday during remarks in Florida that the United States would take over Cuba “almost immediately,” suggesting an aircraft carrier could be positioned offshore after the conflict in Iran. The comments came the same day Trump signed an executive order significantly expanding U.S. sanctions on the Cuban government and its affiliates. Cuba’s government, foreign companies doing business on the island and U.S. allies in the region could face heightened pressure amid a sharp escalation in rhetoric and economic penalties. Newsweek has contacted the White House for clarity on what Trump meant.

Why It Matters

Trump’s remarks add a dramatic edge to an already intensifying U.S. pressure campaign against Havana, which his administration has framed as a national security threat. While the president’s comments appeared partly joking, they followed concrete policy action in the form of broadened sanctions.

Remarks Made During Florida Event

Speaking at the long‑running, nonpartisan Forum Club of the Palm Beaches in West Palm Beach, Florida, during a Friday evening event on May 1, 2026, Trump said the United States would be “taking over” Cuba “almost immediately,” a comment that drew attention for its timing and tone.

He made the remark while addressing the crowd and referencing Cuba’s ongoing political and economic problems, according to Fox News. Trump went on to paint a hypothetical scenario involving U.S. military presence offshore, saying an American aircraft carrier could stop just outside Cuban waters. According to Trump, the show of force alone would be enough to compel surrender, adding that he prefers to “finish a job.”

Read more: https://www.newsweek.com/donald-trump-us-take-over-cuba-11905781

There is no longer a reason to hold onto a belief of what the likes of Alito, Roberts etc. and other justices on the US Supreme Court are as people.

Regardless of what one can say about their educational and professional achievements they are at heart horrendous human beings. These are people who would have no problem with swinging the clubs that beat John Lewis on the Edmund Pettus Bridge. These despicable creatures show us in 2026 what the “judges and juries” in the South of the Jim Crow era and beyond were like.

Their aim is use their authority to strip rights from people and to protect the white rule while claiming it is not about race. They are liars in robes who have lied their way onto the highest court. My suggestion is that the time is now for elected Democrats to drop all politeness when speaking of these justices. Say the words publicly of what they really are and hold nothing back because there is no longer “another time” for it. The time is now. Call them racists at every opportunity. Speak on the floor of the House and in the Senate and call them what they are. Do not shrink from this because this has gotten worse and worse year after year and elected officials being silent or “respectfully” disagreeing accomplishes nothing except the sure destiny of the racists continuing their rape of the rights of people and wiping their ass with the Constitution and this democracy.

My suggestion for example would be for any elected official with some guts is to take the opportunity of the next State of The Union speech where the justices are seated together and walk over to them and hand these racists each a white hood symbolic of their true selves and what they have done and have worked to do for decades. Would it cause an uproar and incident? Damned right it would and it would be a breath of fresh air to see someone actually throw it in their faces live on TV rather than let them sit smugly while people simply lament and criticize their decisions on a scholarly basis.

Oh yes I know it won’t happen and so on we go to the next outrage and the next. Dead protesters, women denied reproductive rights, minorities denied voting rights and equal representation, US citizens grabbed, threatened with deportation and held for months in “custody” and we have to ask at what point do they come after the right to assemble? They already show they take a restricted view of the 4th Amendment along with their attitude towards allowing religious fanatics to insist on having their views inflicted on children in schools and to ban books from libraries. These justices have codified allowing job discrimination, environmental degradation and weakening of already lax worker safety protections.

Along the way they give one or two rulings that seem OK but is it really anything other than giving themselves “cover” and to blunt some of the opposition to them while they plot to do more and increasing damage to the rights of people, our elections and our democracy? I don’t want to hear talking heads telling me in scholarly tones that John Roberts has had a desire and has worked for decades to gut the Voting Rights Act. That might do for a college seminar. Many people will hear that on their TV and go “Yeah that’s true” and then move along. Screw that. Call John Roberts and Alito virulent racists and if the program hosts and producers don’t like it fuck them. The time is long past to call these people what they are and I don’t give a damn who doesn’t like it or who gets hurt feelings or who thinks it’s “divisive”.

Damned right I want to be divided from these evil racists and fascists. I am not interested in “getting along with” or “understanding their views and concerns”. All of that kind of talk is simply propaganda from the racist/fascist camp being thrown back at us to play on the meme that we should “ease up” and that the political climate in the country is “our fault” too. Bullshit.