Tag: politics

San Francisco Supervisor Connie Chan on the precipice of power

SAN FRANCISCO

Lee Heidhues 6.17.2026

Connie Chan’s political opponents unfairly label her a “Progressive.” She is more than that deceptive label implies.

Connie Chan (politician) – Wikipedia

A label which is unfair to Connie. If fighting for the working class, affordable housing and health care as Chair of the Board of Supervisors budget committee then we should all be labeled “Progressives.”

Connie is a practical political policy driven operative who, during her nearly six years as a San Francisco Supervisor, has fought for practical solutions to everyday problems.

Connie Chan has come a long way since she eked out a 125 vote victory to be elected a San Francisco Supervisor in 2020.

Six years later congressional candidate Connie is on the precipice of power having finished second in the June 2nd election. Defeating self funded centimillionaire Saikat Chakrabarti who spent nearly 10M of his own money.

Now, Saikat has endorsed Connie and committed himself, along with his bankroll and campaign staff, to push Connie’s effort. She will need all the help available because her opponent, State Senator Scott Wiener, is the errand guy for the deep pockets real estate industry.

San Francisco Supervisor Connie Chan speaks flanked by Mayor Daniel Lurie to her right at a press event in front of San Francisco City Hall on Oct. 29, 2025.

Excerpted from The San Francisco Examiner 6.17.2026

In a potential boon to San Francisco Supervisor Connie Chan’s congressional campaign, centimillionaire Saikat Chakrabarti has endorsed her candidacy and is converting his campaign committee to support her against state Sen. Scott Wiener in the race to succeed U.S. Rep. Nancy Pelosi, a Chakrabarti spokesperson said.

Chakrabarti — who finished behind Chan in the June 2 primary election despite having loaned or contributed nearly $10 million of his own money to his campaign — changed the name of his election campaign committee to the SF Solidarity PAC, an independent-expenditure committee, according to federal filings.

The former candidate had made offers to about 220 campaign employees who could work on Chan’s behalf as part of the independent effort, said spokesperson Nate Albee.

With almost all of the ballots from the election counted Monday, Wiener — a former San Francisco supervisor and a state legislator of nearly 10 years — won first place, with 95,720 votes, or 40.73%. Pelosi’s 11th Congressional District covers all but a southern chunk of The City.

Chan — who got Pelosi’s coveted endorsement on May 18, late in the primary race — came in second place with 69,823 votes, or 29.71%. Chakrabarti came in third with 41,990 votes, or 17.87%.

The results showed Wiener was dominant in most of The City, but Chan was particularly strong in the heavily Asian American Richmond and Sunset districts, according to data on the website Election Map.

Centimillionaire Chakrabarti to fund operation backing Chan | Politics | sfexaminer.com

Supervisor Chan and supporters at a reelection rally in 2024

In addition to the Chakrabarti endorsement Connie Chan recently announced she has hired a powerful Union organizer as her campaign director, Rudy Gonzalez.

Rudy Gonzalez’s Endorsement of Connie Chan

Rudy Gonzalez, secretary-treasurer of the San Francisco Building and Construction Trades Council (SFBCTC), publicly backed Connie Chan in her campaign for the U.S. House seat vacated by Nancy Pelosi heritagereview.com.

Gonzalez’s endorsement came in the context of a high-stakes Democratic primary race in San Francisco’s 1st district, where Chan was competing against state Sen. Scott Wiener and tech entrepreneur Saikat Chakrabarti. While the California Democratic Party had endorsed Wiener, Chan secured backing from a wide coalition, including labor unions, former mayors, and other community organizations Mission Local.

When asked about the endorsement, Gonzalez did not frame it as the result of a public feud between Pelosi and Wiener, but he did note that “I don’t know if they have a relationship to speak of,” implying a lack of personal connection between the two heritagereview.com. This comment underscored the political dynamics at play — Pelosi had bypassed her own party’s front-runner to choose Chan, and Gonzalez’s support aligned with the broader labor and progressive base that had rallied behind her.

Gonzalez’s role as head of the SFBCTC, one of the largest and most influential unions in San Francisco, gave his endorsement significant weight. His backing reinforced Chan’s position as a candidate with strong labor support, which has been a cornerstone of her campaign messaging occupysf.net.

In sum, Rudy Gonzalez’s endorsement of Connie Chan was both a labor union endorsement and a strategic political move, adding to Chan’s coalition of support in a competitive race.

Top photo: Connie Chan cited by San Francisco Police at a May Day 2026 protest at San Francisco International Airport

If Trump gets his way Team USA will not be enjoying the World Cup

SAN FRANCISCO

Lee Heidhues 6.15.2026

Trump’s anti-immigrant crusade may snag its biggest prize. The current star of the American soccer world.

Team USA stunned its fans and media pundits when it soundly defeated Paraguay4-1 in its opening World Cup match last Friday in SoFi Stadium in Los Angeles. The most goals ever scored by America in a World Cup game.

The man responsible for this feat is Folarin Balogun, the 24 year old Nigerian who earned “Birthright Citizenship” when his pregnant mother was obliged to stay in New York City during her pregnancy. Medical authorities told her it was unsafe to return to Nigeria. Folarin was born on July 23, 2001 and became an American citizen.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Folarin_Balogun

Now Donald Trump is attempting to take away Birthright Citizenship which was deemed legal in 1898. The Supreme Court heard arguments months ago and will soon issue its Decision. United States v. Wong Kim Ark – Wikipedia

United States v. Wong Kim Ark, 169 U.S. 649 (1898), is a landmark decision[3] of the Supreme Court of the United States which held that “a child born in the United States, of parents of Chinese descent, who, at the time of his birth, are subjects of the Emperor of China, but have a permanent domicile and residence in the United States, and are there carrying on business, and are not employed in any diplomatic or official capacity under the Emperor of China” became “at the time of his birth a citizen of the United States by virtue of the first clause of the Fourteenth Amendment of the Constitution.”[1]

Wong Kim Ark was the first Supreme Court case to decide on the status of children born in the United States to alien parents. This decision established an important precedent in its interpretation of the Citizenship Clause of the Fourteenth Amendment to the Constitution.[3]

Wong Kim Ark, who was born in San Francisco, had been denied re-entry to the United States after a trip abroad, under the Chinese Exclusion Act, a law banning virtually all Chinese immigration and prohibiting Chinese immigrants from becoming naturalized U.S. citizens. He challenged the government’s refusal to recognize his citizenship, and the Supreme Court ruled in his favor, holding that the Citizenship Clause should be interpreted “in light of the common law”.

Excerpted from The Hill 6.15.2026

U.S. men’s soccer striker Folarin Balogun scored two goals in the Americans’ victorious opener of the FIFA World Cup on Friday, a performance that would not have occurred had his mother not traveled to the U.S. just before he was born. 

Folarin Balogun scores for Team USA in the World Cup in Los Angeles – 6.12.2026

The performance has also put President Trump’s push to end birthright citizenship back in the spotlight. A challenge to Trump’s executive order ending the policy is before the Supreme Court. 

Balogun’s mother, Florence Balogun, traveled to New York while she was seven months pregnant with the future soccer star in 2001. Florence Balogun and her husband, Ben Balogun, were born in Nigeria and lived in London at the time. 

While Florence Balogun was at the airport to head back to England, airline employees refused to allow her to fly — saying she was too pregnant, according to an ESPN profile of her son from 2023.

As a result, she stayed with her sister-in-law in Brooklyn and gave birth to Folarin in America on July 3, 2001, ESPN reported. Nearly 22 years later, and despite coming up in the Arsenal academy and playing for England’s under-17, under-18 and under-21 teams, Folarin Balogun decided to play for the U.S. senior national team.

That decision paid off on his World Cup debut, as the 24-year-old scored the second and third goals of the Americans’ 4-1 victory over Paraguay on Friday. The win marked the most goals the U.S. has ever scored in a single World Cup game, and it’s one more than the three goals it netted in the entire 2022 tournament.

But if the Supreme Court were to rule in favor of the president on birthright citizenship, Folarin Balogun may not be able to play for the U.S. 

The president’s executive order, which he signed on his first day back in office, stated that the 14th Amendment “has never been interpreted to extend citizenship universally to everyone born within the United States.” 

US soccer star’s 2 World Cup goals thrust Trump birthright citizenship push into spotlight

Netanyahu needs to stop his whining and kvetching.

SAN FRANCISCO

Lee Heidhues 6.15.2026

Netanyahu needs to stop his whining and kvetching. Much of the World is totally disgusted with what this Guy is doing to the historic reputation of Israel.

Excerpted from The Wall Street Journal 6.15.2026

Israel Is Alarmed by Trump’s Deal With Iran

A man waves a Hezbollah flag in Tehran on Sunday. Vahid Salemi/Associated Press

Critics say the deal eases pressure on Tehran too soon, while others say it shows the war was a mistake

TEL AVIV—President Trump’s deal to wind down the war with Iran set off alarm bells in Israel, where top officials are wrestling with the consequences of easing the pressure on Tehran and the risks of opening a rift with the U.S. over the war with Hezbollah in Lebanon.

It is a harsh comedown from Israeli hopes that the war would bring fundamental change to the region by toppling or crippling the Iranian regime and paving the way to diplomatic relations with more of Israel’s Arab regional counterparts under an American security umbrella, said Michael Oren, a former Israeli ambassador to Washington.

The tension has been heightened by the lack of certainty about what exactly Trump has agreed to in the deal, which is expected to be signed later this week. Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu was urgently trying to set up a meeting with the president to sort out the competing issues, a person familiar with the matter said. 

An Israeli strike over the weekend on Beirut in response to Hezbollah attacks on Israel almost derailed the agreement and set off a last-minute scramble by the White House and mediators to keep the deal on track.

Trump criticized the strike in an interview with The Wall Street Journal and said on social media that Israel had to stop its attacks across Lebanon. That was at odds with a U.S.-brokered ceasefire agreement earlier in June that only required Israel to end the fighting if Hezbollah also stopped. Iranian Foreign Minister Abbas Araghchi said the U.S. was on the hook to end Israel’s attacks and aggression in Lebanon, state media reported.

Defying those claims, Israeli Defense Minister Israel Katz said the military would hold its so-called security zone in Lebanon indefinitely, saying it was needed to protect communities in northern Israel. He also said Israel would act independently to stop Iran from getting nuclear weapons if necessary. 

Israel is concerned that Trump has agreed to a deal that could provide Tehran with the financial relief it needs to rebuild its shattered economy but doesn’t include a commitment to turn over its enriched uranium.

https://www.wsj.com/world/middle-east/israel-iran-deal-lebanon-581695ac?st=ohKSwx&reflink=desktopwebshare_permalink

Trump’s 80th birthday ‘Cage Fight’ as G7 protesters police clash in Geneva

SAN FRANCISCO

Lee Heidhues 6.14.2026

It figures that the G7 would be postponed for a day to accommodate Donald Trump’s 80th birthday 60M cage fight match in front of the White House.

The 52nd G7 Summit is a scheduled annual summit of the G7 to be held from 15 to 17 June 2026 in Évian-les-Bains, Haute-Savoie, France.[1][2]

The summit had initially been announced for 14-16 June 2026, but was later moved by one day to 15-17 June, to avoid a clash with US president Donald Trump‘s birthday.[5]

Évian-les-Bains previously hosted the 29th G8 summit in 2003. The 2026 summit will therefore make Évian the first French town to host a G7 or G8 leaders’ summit twice.[2][3]

Background

The summit is being held on the French shore of Lake Geneva, close to the border with Switzerland. As several delegations are expected to arrive through Geneva Airport, the event requires security coordination between France, Switzerland and the Swiss cantons of Geneva, Vaud and Valais.[4]

French president Emmanuel Macron made the reduction of global economic imbalances a priority for France’s G7 presidency, citing industrial overcapacity, underinvestment, excessive debt, deregulation and low private investment in developing countries among the threats to economic stability.[6]

Deutsche Welle 6.14.2026

52nd G7 summit – Wikipedia

Protesters in Geneva clashed with police, set a car on fire and smashed the windows of a bank to show their opposition to the G7 G7 – Wikipedia summit taking place across the border in France.

Clashes broke out between protesters and police near the United Nations (UN) building in Geneva on Sunday on the eve of the G7 summit in the nearby French resort town of Evian.

Leaders from the Group of Seven wealthy nations, including US President Donald Trump, are set to gather in Evian on Monday for a three-day meeting.

The demonstration was taking place in Geneva because France refused to issue permits for protests near the G7 summit venue, the Geneva city government said.

Macron and Trump. Who’s the puppet?

Demonstrators threw bottles, stones and firecrackers at police, who responded with tear gas and water cannons.

Witnesses cited by the AFP and Reuters news agencies said protesters targeted the offices of the UN’s telecommunication building and threw flares as police tried to clear them from the site.

Thousands of security personnel were deployed in Geneva, about 50 kilometers (30 miles) southwest of Evian, ahead of the protest organized by an anti-G7 coalition. 

G7 protest not allowed in France

Some 20,000 people gathered for a march that began peacefully in the early afternoon before violence broke out.

Some protesters tore down the plywood panels fitted to protect shopfronts and smashed windows, pelted projectiles at police, and set a Tesla on fire.

Protests are common at G7 gatherings, with demonstrators at the summits often voicing anger over capitalism, globalization, inequality and other issues.

The agenda is expected to be dominated by wars in the Middle East and Ukraine.

https://www.dw.com/en/police-fire-tear-gas-at-anti-g7-protesters-in-geneva/a-77548464

Trump DOJ wants prison time for the former adviser John Bolton

 SAN FRANCISCO

Lee Heidhues 6.4.2026

The blogger is no fan of John Bolton.

It’s a scary notion that a well respected government official can be persecuted for exercising his right to free speech.

Click to access bolton-indictment.pdf

The arch conservative when it comes to American hegemony. I have seen him appear on The News Hour, Deutsche Welle and the BBC. I have read his writings in Foreign Affairs magazine and The Wall Street Journal.

I certainly disagree with John Bolton on his Hawkish views regarding American hegemony. But nobody can question his integrity, sincerity or convictions.

Bolton is being unfairly persecuted by Donald Trump’s Department of Justice. The convicted felon President doesn’t like what he wrote in his book, ‘The Room Where It Happened’ The Room Where It Happened – Wikipedia after leaving the White House during his first term.

The entire Editorial in the Wall Street Journal can be found by accessing the following link.

https://www.wsj.com/opinion/john-bolton-plea-deal-classified-documents-donald-trump-0a24f831?st=uFuQ2T&reflink=desktopwebshare_permalink
John gives Trump the Eye

President Trump may hate being the target of lawfare, but he sure knows how to wield it against anyone who crosses him.

That’s the story of John Bolton, his former national security adviser, who is agreeing to a plea deal essentially for the sin of writing a critical book about his time advising Mr. Trump.

The President has been determined to seek revenge against Mr. Bolton, who wrote his well-regarded memoir, “The Room Where It Happened,” based on his 17 months running the National Security Council in Mr. Trump’s first term.

Mr. Trump first tried and failed to block publication, then went to court to confiscate the royalties. He lost that fight too. But on Mr. Trump’s return to office, his Justice Department charged Mr. Bolton with a coercive 18-count indictment for keeping diary notes on a home computer that included “national defense information.”

Mr. Bolton has now decided to plead guilty to a single felony count for retaining classified information. He will pay a $2.5 million fine, which is best understood as an attempt to deny Mr. Bolton the earnings from the book.

Like most similar defendants, Mr. Bolton had little choice.

Rail travel is the SMART trip. North Bay voters just said YES for 30 more years

SAN FRANCISCO

Lee Heidhues 6.3.2026

It is very reassuring to know that voters in Marin and Sonoma County have overwhelmingly endorsed the SMART train which currently runs from Larkspur in Marin to the far reaches of Sonoma County.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sonoma%E2%80%93Marin_Area_Rail_Transit

At a time when voters in car centric America are loath to fund public transit the results coming from Marin and Sonoma Counties prove that voters appreciate the value of sustainable passenger rail travel.

Perhaps North Bay voters have experienced rail travel outside the United States where public transit is an essential part of daily life.

The blogger can only bemoan the sordid history of how the automobile industry worked hard to destroy public transit in the United States. (see attached link).

https://www.smartcitiesdive.com/ex/sustainablecitiescollective/demise-american-public-transportation/183456

Excerpted from The San Francisco Chronicle and Marin Independent Journal 6.3.2026

SMART’s (Sonoma-Marin Area Rail Transit) critical sales tax extension rode to passage Tuesday.

Officials in the public transportation world have something to cheer about andare trying to remain optimistic, pointing to a SMART train sales tax extension on Tuesday that won 70% of the vote in Marin and Sonoma counties.

To many observers, it demonstrates not only that residents value transit but that they view SMART as a centerpiece for a new wave of development.

With 100% of precincts reporting, results from Marin show 70.25% of voters in favor and 29.75% opposed. In Sonoma County, with 72% of precincts reporting, returns showed 70.44% voted yes and 29.56% were opposed.

Measure B renewed the quarter-cent sales tax for 30 years. The tax generates about $51 million annually for SMART, equal to more than half of its annual operating budget.

Marin County has 173,082 registered voters, while there are 319,260 in Sonoma County.

The citizens’ initiative required a simple majority vote to win, as opposed to a traditional two-thirds threshold. If the measure had failed, the existing tax would have expired on June 30, 2029.

“We couldn’t be more pleased with the results we’re seeing right now,” said Suzanne Smith, chair of the SMART initiative committee.

“I think it’s a testament to SMART as an organization and the services they provide to the community,” said Smith, a former executive director of the Sonoma County Transportation Authority. “We, as a committee, were lucky enough to have such a great project to sell to voters, to tell voters about, and voters see that value, so we’re pretty excited.”

https://www.msn.com/en-us/news/other/smart-tax-renewal-measure-heading-toward-passage/ar-AA24ILgV?ocid=BingNewsSerp

Russia launches yet another major drone attack on Ukraine. The World yawns

SAN FRANCISCO

Lee Heidhues 6.2.2026

Most of America has tuned out to the ongoing Russian carnage being inflicted on the people of Ukraine.

The mainstream media only gives the Putin led aggression scant coverage.

The Russian onslaught is well into its fifth year and the truth of the matter is most of the world has lost interest.

Much of this has to do with the undeniable fact that Donald Trump has regarded the Ukraine carnage a side show.

And, given the problems of his own making, think Iran Trump is happy enough to let Putin do what he wants while Ukraine burns and its citizens perish.

Excerpted from Deutsche Welle 6.2.2026

Russia launched a major missile and drone attack on Ukrainian cities, including Kyiv, Dnipro and Kharkiv, overnight into Tuesday, killing at least 22 people and wounding over 100 others.

This comes after days of warnings that Moscow was planning another major attack. On Tuesday evening, Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy warned that ​”another ‌large-scale attack may occur tonight,” according to Ukrainian intelligence. 

Russia launched 73 missiles and 656 drones at Ukraine starting 6 p.m. local time on Monday (1500 GMT), Ukraine’s air force said, adding that 40 missiles and 602 drones had been neutralized. 

Kyiv was the main target, but drones struck 38 other sites across Ukraine, the air force said on Telegram

Meanwhile, Russia’s Defense Ministry said it used high-precision, long-range weapons to strike Ukraine’s defense industry facilities. In a statement, the ministry said it carried out a “massive strike” and claimed to use “high-precision weapons.”

“The ​strike ‌objectives have been achieved, all ‌designated targets have been hit,” ‌it ​claimed.

Following the attack, Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy urged Europe to develop its own air defense systems.

“Europe needs its own anti-ballistic defense so that this war can finally be brought to an end,” he wrote on social media on Tuesday. He also called for more support from Washington, saying their Patriot systems — which can intercept Russian ballistic missiles — are “absolutely necessary.”

https://www.dw.com/en/russia-launches-major-missile-attack-on-ukraine-several-killed/a-77384025

Open the Link and watch the Video of the devastation against Ukraine inflicted by Russian drones.

Mom and Pop on the FBI 10 Most Wanted List. Not your typical American family.

SAN FRANCISCO

Lee Heidhues 5.31.2026

The 1960’s radical movement thankfully never went away.

Depending on your retrospective walk through American history in the 1960’s ‘Progressives’ are thought of as either forward looking progressives determined to upend the System. Or spoiled rotten kids who didn’t appreciate the good things about the consumer driven money making post World War II era in which their parents participated in.

Zayd Ayers Dohrn was unwittingly and unknowingly raised and nurtured in the maelstrom of 1960’s politics. And seems to have landed with both feet firmly in the camp of realistic thinkers without having forsaken his upbringing.

Excerpted from The Wall Street Journal ‘Review’ Joseph Epstein – 5.29.2026

What’s in a name? Consider the name of Zayd Ayers Dohrn, the author of “Dangerous, Dirty, Violent, and Young.” His first name derives from that of Zayd Shakur, the minister of information of the East Coast Panthers, a radical group formed in the late 1960s. Ayers was his father’s name, his father being William Ayers, a leader of the Students for a Democratic Society (SDS), a founder of the terrorist group the Weather Underground and a relentless organizer on behalf of revolution. Dohrn was his mother’s name, and she, Bernardine Dohrn, was a fellow member of the Weather Underground, as well as the fourth woman to appear on the FBI’s 10 Most Wanted List. Quite a bit, it would seem, can be in a name.

The subtitle of Zayd Ayers Dohrn’s book is “A Fugitive Family in the Revolutionary Underground.” Reading it, I was more than grateful for the ticket I had drawn in the parent lottery. Throughout his book, Mr. Dohrn, who was born in 1977, wonders how much he, his younger brother and his foster brother really meant to their parents. As a child he feared, and he reports he fears still, that next to their commitment to revolution, perhaps not all that much.

The book offers an account of both of his parents’ revolutionary careers. Neither was brought up in a radically political family. Both came to their politics in their early adulthood.

His mother, whom J. Edgar Hoover would call “the most dangerous woman in America,” was born into a middle-class home and grew up in a suburb north of Milwaukee. Strikingly good-looking and an excellent student, she went off to college at Miami of Ohio, where she was rejected by every sorority on campus because she was Jewish. Doubtless this rejection set her off on her political path.

‘The Weather Underground’ Academy Award nominee 2004 – The Weather Underground (film) – Wikipedia

Soon, the author explains, Ms. Dohrn transferred to the University of Chicago, where she fell in with the political faction among the students. (Bernie Sanders, later a firebrand senator, attended at the same time.) She went on to law school, though at the time she had little interest in a legal career. She would work with Martin Luther King Jr. on his rent strike in Chicago and, her son reports, had a single magical meeting with Muhammad Ali.

Ms. Dohrn would later have a hand in planning the student riots in Chicago in 1968. “I consider myself a revolutionary Communist,” she declared when she was elected to the SDS national board that year. “There’s no way to be committed to nonviolence,” she said, “in the middle of the most violent society history has ever created.” Her hatred for America was unqualified.

William Ayers grew up in the middle-class Chicago suburb of Glen Ellyn, the son of a high-level executive at Commonwealth Edison (he would eventually become its Chief Executive Officer). In 1963 Mr. Ayers went off to college at the University of Michigan, at the time the residence of the political organizer Tom Hayden and the scene of the founding of SDS. Not political before then, Mr. Ayers began showing up at protests. Soon he quit his fraternity and not long after dropped out of school.

The young Chesa Boudin

They didn’t marry until 1982, when Ms. Dohrn was 40 and Mr. Ayers was in his late 30s. They settled in Hyde Park, Chicago, where they also raised Chesa Boudin, the son of Kathy Boudin and David Gilbert who were serving long prison terms.

Former Weather Underground member Bernardine Dohrn walks with friend Bill Ayers and an unidentified child outside the Federal Court Building in New York, May 17, 1982. The couple refused to identify the child. Dohrn refused to cooperate with a Federal Grand Jury investigating on October’s bloody Brink’s robbery in Rockland County. (AP Photo/David Handschuh)
“You don’t need a Weatherman to know which way the wind blows.”
https://www.wsj.com/arts-culture/books/dangerous-dirty-violent-and-young-review-raised-in-the-revolution-e0a005a9?st=wFcDsx&reflink=desktopwebshare_permalink

Top photo: Bernadine Dohrn and Bill Ayers with a young Zayd Ayers Dohrn

Whose “hair is on fire”? Trump tosses Israel and the War Hawks into the Straits of Hormuz

SAN FRANCISCO

Lee Heidhues 5.24.2026

Trump does the “surrender” walk

Some commentators describe The Atlantic piece as War Hawk neo con talking points blasting Trump for “surrendering” to Iran.

Such talk is only correct by half. Yes Trump may be surrendering. But not for the reasons the War Hawks argue.

Trump is the prototype, for better and worse, transactional operator. He realizes belatedly the entire assault on Iran, pushed by Israel, has been a disaster from Day One on February 28, 2026. Now he is seeking an exit ramp realizing he’s made a shambles of the global economy and guaranteed the MAGA brand is going to take a beating on election day next November 3rd.

Excerpted from The Atlantic 5.21.2026 – Robert Kagan

According to one U.S. official, Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu’s “hair was on fire” after the May 20th call with Donald Trump—for good reason.

The outlines of President Trump’s endgame in the Iran war are now emerging. In a phone call with Israeli Prime Minister Netanyahu May 20th, Trump reportedly explained that the United States was negotiating a “letter of intent” with Iran that would “formally end the war and launch a 30-day period of negotiations” on Iran’s nuclear program and the reopening of the Strait of Hormuz

Trump’s repeated threats to resume attacks since then have proved to be bluffs. The leaders in Tehran have been calculating for two months that Trump would not launch another attack, and for this reason they have made no concessions despite the damage they suffered from 37 days of relentless strikes. On the contrary, their terms for a settlement are those of a victor: They demand war reparations, no limits on uranium enrichment, recognized control of the strait, and an end to sanctions.

The purpose and effect of such an agreement should be clear: The United States is walking away from the crisis. Trump may launch another limited strike to look tough and satisfy the demands of the war’s supporters, but it would be a performative gesture. Endgame in this case is a euphemism for “surrender.”

Trump no doubt hopes that he can slip away without Americans noticing the magnitude of this defeat. The financial markets may stabilize if it is clear that oil will eventually start flowing again through a reopened strait, even if under the new Iran-controlled system.

The Iran war may end up as the single most devastating blow to Israel’s security in its brief history. On the present trajectory, Iran will emerge from the conflict many times stronger and more influential than it was before the war. It will exercise leverage with dozens of the richest nations in the world, all of which will have an acute interest in keeping Iran happy. They will be unlikely to take Israel’s side in any conflict that it has with Tehran or with its proxies in Lebanon and Gaza, because Iran will have the means to punish them if they do. Israel will emerge more isolated than it has been at any time in its history—and not least from its only reliable protector, the United States. When Trump turns his back on Israel, as he must do to implement this policy, MAGA will gladly follow. The bipartisan anti-Israel consensus in the United States will grow and harden.

https://www.theatlantic.com/international/2026/05/trump-surrender-iran-endgame/687252/?gift=og7bP-I2jPZ31wYIETbx1vmTNzK9tVbSb56RgKFzK1U&utm_source=copy-link&utm_medium=social&utm_campaign=share

Thug Netanyahu pushes thru death penalty for Palestinians

SAN FRANCISCO

Lee Heidhues 3.30.2026

Just in time for Passover.

Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu is a war making, some would say, ‘war criminal’.

It makes perverse sense that this thuggish politician would push through a death penalty measure aimed at the Palestinians.

Netanyahu is already responsible for the slaughter of tens of thousands in Palestine, Lebanon and Iran already. The death penalty statute just adds to his list criminal and inhumane activity.

Aftermath of Israeli air strike in Gaza resulting in the death of 90 civilians

Excerpted from Deutsche Welle 3.30.2026

Israel‘s parliament, the Knesset, on Monday passed legislation making the death penalty by hanging the default punishment for West Bank Palestinians found guilty of murdering Israeli citizens.

“The State of Israel is changing the rules of the game today,” said Minister of National Security Itamar Ben-Gvir, a West Bank settler whose ultranationalist party introduced the bill and who has popularized the measure with a noose pinned to his lapel.

Israeli media outlets showed images of Ben-Gvir celebrating with his fellow Knesset members in Israel’s parliament.

Critics also say it is unlikely to deter attacks by Palestinian attackers and that Israel has no sovereign jurisdiction over the occupied Palestinian territories.

It stressed that “such laws and measures will not break the will of the Palestinian people or undermine their steadfastness, nor will they deter them from continuing their legitimate struggle for freedom, independence, and the establishment of an independent Palestinian state with East Jerusalem as its capital.”

A large number of Israelis are appalled by Netanyahu’s criminal behavior

The Palestinian presidency strongly condemned the law, saying it “amounts to a war crime,” in a statement carried by the Palestinian Wafa news agency.

A total of 62 of 120 lawmakers backed the bill, including Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, whose ruling coalition is reliant on the support of far-right parties, for whom the adoption of the law marks a major victory.

“Those who murder Jews will not continue to breathe and enjoy conditions in prison,” he said. “This is a day of justice for the murdered, a day of deterrence for enemies,” Ben-Gvir said after the Knesset vote.

https://www.dw.com/en/israel-knesset-approves-death-penalty-for-palestinians/a-76599313

Top photo: Netanyahu and Minister of National Security Itamar Ben-Gvir, a West Bank settler whose ultranationalist party introduced the bill and who has popularized the measure with a noose pinned to his lapel celebrate passage of Palestinian death penalty bill in Israeli Knesset

The hangman for Palestinians in Netanyahu’s Israel