Welcome to a Hump Day (“قۇمچاق كۈنى” inUyghur): Wednesday, May 27, 2026 and National Cellophane Tape Day, celebrating a luxury that’s been around For only 96 years. Here’s how it’s made:
It’s also National Grape Popsicle Day (the best flavor), and National Senior Health and Fitness Day.
Readers are welcome to mark notable events, births, or deaths on this day by consulting the May 27 Wikipedia page.
Da Nooz:
*Well, Iran is threatening to retaliate for Monday’s U.S. strike on Iranian missile launchers.
Iran deployed mine-laying boats in the Strait of Hormuz and flew attack drones near American ships, threatening actions that drew U.S. strikes early Tuesday, according to two American officials. Hours later, Iran’s Islamic Revolutionary Guards Corps promised a “decisive reciprocal response” to any cease-fire violations.
The two U.S. officials, who spoke on condition of anonymity to discuss military matters, said the strikes came after the Americans observed Iranian forces taking several actions, including launching the drones and activity at missile launch sites. The U.S. military attacked Iranian boats and launch sites in what it called “self-defense strikes.”
The ratcheting up of hostilities after a period of relative calm added to the uncertainty surrounding negotiations for a potential peace deal. President Trump and his administration have continued to offer conflicting signals about the state of play, indicating over the weekend that a deal, at least to open the key oil and gas shipping lanes of the strait, was close at hand.
Secretary of State Marco Rubio on Tuesday said talks to end the war were in progress, and that a deal could take “a few days.” A day earlier, Mr. Trump said there was no hurry to reach an agreement, and the result would be either “great and meaningful” or “no deal” at all. Iran’s lead negotiators returned home on Tuesday from peace talks in Qatar, indicating at least a temporary pause in the discussions.
Mr. Trump has repeatedly threatened a return to hostilities while also pushing for a peace agreement. He has focused on a preliminary deal to reopen the strait, which Iran has effectively blockaded, but Iran’s stockpile of highly enriched uranium and U.S. sanctions on Iran remain largely unresolved issues.
Iran’s supreme leader, Mojtaba Khamenei, said in a written statement on Tuesday that the war with the United States had shown that American military bases in the Middle East are no longer safe.
From the Washington Post:
In a statement Tuesday, Iran’s Foreign Ministry condemned the attacks, which it called a “blatant violation” of the ceasefire, and said it would “leave no act of hostility unanswered.”
But these may be empty threats: so far Iran has not struck back. They know that the U.S. could strike Kharg Island, from which 90% of Iran’s oil is exported. So far Trump hasn’t done that, as he knows how it would rock the world’s economy, but that would more or less destroy Iran’s own economy. The whole peace process now hinges on what Iran will do to its uranium; I have no doubt that Trump will not force Iran to stop enriching uranium in the future. As for the oppressed people of Iran, well, Trump doesn’t care about them.
*Michael Doran, a Middle East expert who teaches at The Hudson Institute, informs us “This is how the Iran war ends” at the Free Press, and it’s not a great deal for the U.S. But Doran seems to think that Trump’s approach is peachy.
In a conversation with a senior administration official over the weekend, the president’s thinking on the emerging framework became clearer. The president envisions a two-stage process. In the first stage, the two sides would sign a memorandum of understanding (MOU) focused on reopening the Strait of Hormuz under international monitoring. The initial agreement is designed to stabilize energy markets, ease military tensions, and preserve the ceasefire. In exchange, Iran would receive limited, reversible economic relief, in the form of oil sales.
The second stage would then shift to the core strategic issue: the nuclear program. As the official put it to me, “What we want is a commitment on the enriched stockpile” already in the initial MOU. Here, the administration would press Iran to remove what Trump has taken to calling the “nuclear dust”—the remnants of Tehran’s nuclear infrastructure and its stockpiles of enriched uranium. The guiding principle, the official continued, is “No dust, no dollars. . . we are not giving up anything until they give us something.”
This plan will likely devolve into one of two possible outcomes. Let’s call them the optimistic and pessimistic scenarios.
In the optimistic scenario, both stages of the plan come to fruition. An extendable MOU is signed in the coming days, reopening the Strait of Hormuz under international monitoring, easing immediate military tensions and allowing oil to flow normally through the Gulf. Iran receives limited, reversible economic relief. Economic desperation proves decisive. The IRGC concludes that partial accommodation is preferable to prolonged isolation and the risk of renewed American strikes. Serious negotiations follow on the nuclear file. Iran makes meaningful concessions on removing the “nuclear dust.”
. . . The odds of this happening are slim.
. . .In the pessimistic scenario, the first-stage MOU moves forward and the Strait of Hormuz reopens, but the second-stage negotiations over the nuclear remnants quickly bog down. Delay, mistrust, and tactical maneuvering place the negotiations on a road to nowhere, consistent with the pattern of all previous U.S.-Iran nuclear talks.
Trump has already demonstrated, through action rather than rhetoric, that he is not Barack Obama.
Even in this outcome, the United States would still achieve a significant strategic gain. The more relevant historical comparison is the post-1991 containment of Saddam Hussein. A weakened, sanctioned regime remained in prolonged friction with a U.S.-led coalition that retained escalation dominance and overwhelming military superiority. The military campaign would give way to a prolonged contest of pressure, deterrence, and attrition. But Iran now is substantially poorer, more isolated, and further from a nuclear breakout than before the war began. The U.S. and Israel will maintain close monitoring of any remaining nuclear activity and ballistic missile production, ready to react to any alarming developments.
The pessimistic scenario is not the administration’s goal but remains, in my view, the more likely outcome. Republican hawks will have far more influence over this process if they work within the president’s framework rather than reflexively opposing it.
But three things have to be done, whatever the outcome:
First, significant sanctions relief or direct economic benefits for Tehran must come only in exchange for concrete, verifiable concessions, not merely for participating in a diplomatic process.
. . . Second, the administration must detach Hezbollah and Lebanon from the nuclear negotiations.
. . . Third, the military threat must remain visible and credible throughout the negotiations. Tehran entered these talks only after suffering severe military and economic blows.
Yes, the “pessimistic” scenario seems more likely, and you could make a parallel with Gaza, in which there’s a cease-fire but no definitive end to the conflict so long as Hamas remains in power. Likewise, so long as the present Iranian regime remains in power—and there’s every expectation it will—then a nuclear agreement won’t happen. TThe new Big Lie from the Trump administration: “We’ve achieved regime change!”
*Over at It’s Noon in Israel, Amit Segal describes how Qatar (erstwhile home of rich Hamas leaders) is bribing Iran to accept a ceasefire. Remember that Qatar and much of its oil industry has been damaged by physical strikes from Iran.
It’s Tuesday, May 26, and imagine you are a small country surrounded by larger, far more aggressive neighbors. You have one distinct advantage: trillions of dollars in oil and gas wealth. What do you do with it? You could buy a massive army, but you lack the population to staff it. You could pay off larger powers directly, but that relies on their financial interests permanently outweighing their strategic ones.
So instead, you buy influence. You make yourself so structurally vital that the geopolitical cost of destroying you becomes prohibitively high. You build the region’s largest news network. You cultivate backchannel contacts no one else has. You make yourself completely indispensable by offering neutral ground to sworn enemies, and you host massive American military bases to physically anchor your security. Congratulations. You are Qatar.
But what happens when that meticulously crafted influence isn’t strong enough to stop a war? Suddenly, you realize that all the money in the world cannot intercept a missile once it’s launched.
That’s the question facing the small Gulf state today.
. . .Thrust into a reality where they are functionally powerless, the Qataris faced two options: pour their remaining resources into permanently eliminating the Iranian threat, or desperately hedge and promote a diplomatic solution in an attempt to restore the status quo ante, returning to an ecosystem where they can resume their role as the ultimate middleman.
Qatar has opted for the latter.
According to my sources, Doha is offering Iran a $12 billion “loan,” ostensibly earmarked for humanitarian purposes, as a sweetener to persuade Tehran to accept the current U.S. ceasefire deal. Let’s be clear: this is neither humanitarian nor a loan. It is a straight bribe. The Iranian regime is teetering over an economic chasm. Even if the U.S. lifts the blockade on Iranian ports, Tehran remains completely insolvent. Without a massive infusion of cash to act as a liquidity bridge, the regime will fall into the abyss. Qatar is stepping in to ensure they survive, providing the cash Iran needs to sign the deal regardless of whether Washington unfreezes Iranian assets.
This is hardly a new strategy for the Gulf microstate. During the war, Qatar offered $6 billion—funds effectively belonging to the Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps—in a direct bid to convince Tehran to halt its strikes on Qatari infrastructure. Truth be told, a $12 billion bribe is simply good economics; if it restores shipping through the Strait of Hormuz, the return to regular revenue will make that cost a rounding error.
Qatar deserves what it gets—at least the politicians do. They have harbored Hamas while promising to facilitate negotiations over Gaza. And it’s likely that they funneled me from Qatar to Hamas in Gaza. Sure, it’s doing what it must, but it has been hypocritical and, in effect, a sponsor of terrorism.
*More clickbait for me: an op-ed in the NYT by Maryland’s senior Senator, Democrat Chris van Hollen. And, like others I’ve featured, he gives us his take on “The hard truths my party needs to face.” Unfortiunately, the hard truths he floats are that Democrats must further demonize Israel and demand—wait for it—a two-state solution.
Democrats need to face a hard truth. While Republicans’ approach to the Israeli-Palestinian conflict has failed, so has ours. The Democratic Party has provided reflexive and unconditional support to Israeli governments, even as their actions have increasingly undermined American interests and values.
For decades, we have called for a two-state solution, but we’ve failed to use our leverage to make it real. It’s past time that we use that leverage to end the occupation and achieve two states with full political and legal rights for all. That means withdrawing taxpayer support from Israel and conditioning arms sales.
More of my colleagues are realizing that the status quo is unacceptable. Forty Democrats recently voted to block the transfer of certain military equipment to Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu’s government, compared to only 15 of us in April of last year.
To be clear, I support Israel’s need for security. But for too long most Democrats have unquestioningly accepted Israel’s argument that American weapons are needed and used solely for its defense. We have not yet fully confronted the fact that Israel has used its strength not only as a shield, but also as a sword to bury the two-state solution and advance the far right’s vision of a “Greater Israel.”
The evidence on the ground is overwhelming: Violent settlers in the West Bank have attacked Palestinians with impunity, and Israeli security forces are increasingly complicit. Israel’s de facto annexation of the West Bank has pushed Palestinians into shrinking enclaves. Mr. Netanyahu’s government has sabotaged the Palestinian Authority, which, unlike Hamas, has accepted Israel’s right to statehood. Anyone who visits the West Bank under Israeli occupation can see an apartheid system at work. Meanwhile, Gaza remains in ruins, the humanitarian situation there remains catastrophic and Hamas remains armed.
. . .Both Republican and Democratic administrations are responsible for where we are today. In his first term, President Trump moved the U.S. Embassy to Jerusalem, implicitly condoned settlements and closed the Palestinian mission in Washington and our consulate in East Jerusalem.
President Joe Biden failed to reverse most of these actions, even as Israel elected the most extremist government in its history. Moreover, Mr. Biden de-prioritized the Israeli-Palestinian peace process upon taking office. And while he was right to affirm Israel’s right to defend itself after Hamas’s Oct. 7 attacks, he repeatedly failed to use U.S. leverage as Israel imposed devastating collective punishment on the people of Gaza.
These failures worked against U.S. interests. The Israeli-Palestinian conflict has ensnared us in violence and caused instability throughout the Middle East. It has cost taxpayers tens of billions of dollars. It undermines our credibility, as countries see our unconditional backing of the Israeli government as inconsistent with the principles we profess to represent.
. . . Moving forward will not be easy. It will place the United States on a collision course with any Israeli government opposed to a Palestinian state. It will face strong resistance from many here at home, including the American Israel Public Affairs Committee, which has opposed any efforts to condition support for Israel. AIPAC’s influence in Congress remains formidable even as Americans increasingly reject its positions and its use of super PACs to pour money into elections.
This was deeply depressing even if you expect such mishigass from the New York Times. How can Senator “Two-Sates” van Hollen not know that a) that solution is off the table. Palestine never wanted it, and now Israel won’t have it? Netanyahu won’t be Prime Minister forever. And doesn’t he realize, as anybody with neurons would, that a Palestinian state would not be governed by the Palestinian Authority (which has repeatedly rejected a state) but by Hamas, which most Palestinians in both Gaza and the West Bank favor over the Palestinian authority? Look at Gaza: it was in effect a state given to Palestine by Israel, yet terrorists are still in charge there.
It’s deeply depressing that a Democrat would suggest this as a solution for the party, and I could never vote for someone as obtuse as the author of this op-ed. I sent this op-ed to one of my Jewish friends, who responded this way: “ I’m completely alienated from the Democratic Party and the NYTimes. I consider this turn of events a personal tragedy as well as a national one.” I share those feelings.
*Trump is having a tantrum about the legislative and judicial systems trying to hold up the construction of his new “ballroom” on the former East Wing the White House (article archived here). As you may recall, Trump said the ballroom would be funded by private money, but has since asked for a $1 billion supplement in public money because the ballroom will incorporate “security measures” like drone-resistant construction and a bomb shelter (it is supposed to go six stories underground).
On Monday, the president shared on social media a copy of a legal filing that closely resembled his own words and contended that the weekend’s shooting outside the White House campus proved the need for a ballroom.
“Without the construction of this great Project, the President cannot safely conduct the business of the United States,” acting attorney general Todd Blanche and two other senior Justice Department officials lawyers wrote, urging a federal judge to dissolve his order that could soon halt construction. “This is a terrible, tremendously harmful case to the United States of America, and all it stands for!”
The filing also mocked the National Trust for Historic Preservation, which has sued to halt the project, claiming that the group had been “defunded by Congress due to a total lack of respect for them.” Trump posted all six pages of the filing on his Truth Social platform.
Trump’s ballroom project has embodied executive power and its limitations.
The president was able to rapidly bulldoze the East Wing last year, clearing space for his planned 90,000-square-foot addition. Trump has remade independent federal commissions — firing holdovers and installing loyalists, including his executive assistant — that have swiftly approved his project. He’s raised vast sums of money that he says can be put toward the ballroom’s estimated $400 million cost.
But so far, he has been constrained — barely — by the courts and Congress.
U.S. District Judge Richard Leon has twice sided with the National Trust, ordering a pause on the aboveground components of the ballroom until Congress formally authorizes the project. Leon also criticized the administration’s plan to use private donations to pay for the project, calling it a “Rube Goldberg” contraption that was structured in an attempt to evade congressional oversight. A federal appeals panel stayed Leon’s order and is set to hear arguments in the case June 5.
And Congress has so far not voted to authorize the projects. Last week, Senate Republicans revolted against a proposal to add money to a budget bill to cover security costs related to the ballroom.
Good fvor the Republicans. Trump is becoming another Mussolini: he even stands like him with his head back and jaw jutting out. This latest movie is defying both of the other branches of government—branches that Trump apparently doesn’t recognize. But if the ballroom isn’t built, then what? Will they put up the East Wing as it used to be? I don’t think so.
Meanwhile in Dobrzyn, Kulka showed up (Hili hates her):
Me: We’ve got a guest.
Hili: Ignore her.
In Polish:
Ja: Mamy gościa.
Hili: Zignoruj ją.
*******************
From Things with Faces (this was reportedly seen at New York’s LaGuardia Airport:
From Give Me a Sign:
From Masih, an MMA (mixed martial arts) champion was executed in Iran:
Is This MMA Campion was executed in Iran by hanging.
While the world was busy negotiating with Tehran, the World Cup, FIFA, and international sports organizations keep welcoming the Islamic Republic onto the global stage while this regime hangs its own people from cranes.
His… pic.twitter.com/N0eSBBH7T8
— Masih Alinejad 🏳️ (@AlinejadMasih) May 26, 2026
From Luana, an entitled child of an immigrant criticizes his country. That is okay, as we have free speech, but it does smack of ingratitude:
I had a professor at Cal State Long Beach who constantly trashed America as racist, oppressive, and irredeemable. He mocked the Constitution, capitalism, and virtually every American institution.
At the end of the semester, he gave an emotional story about how his mother crawled… https://t.co/0SH3nbxGzh
— Will Ricciardella (@WillRicci) May 25, 2026
From Bryan, Dawkins explains evolution in a few minutes. (I don’t know the occasion.)
Evolutionary Professor explains why we are all Africans🤔💯
Creationists are frothing at the mouth.😅 pic.twitter.com/zcgDh9z0o5
— 么 ꜱ ᴀ ᴍ ꪜ, (@___TheGOOdWitch) May 25, 2026
From the Number Ten Cat, who had a nice nap:
Just woke up. Spent the entire bank holiday asleep. Bliss. Night all!
— Larry the Cat (@Number10cat) May 25, 2026
One from my feed. I still don’t know why cats knock stuff off counters.
No seriously why are they like this??? pic.twitter.com/D6zB2WM47p
— South Dallas Foodie (@SouthDallasFood) May 26, 2026
One I reposted from The Auschwitz Memorial:
This Hungarian girl was gassed as soon as she arrived in Auschwitz. She was seven years old.
— Jerry Coyne (@evolutionistrue.bsky.social) 2026-05-27T10:07:52.797Z
Two from Dr. Cobb. First, a rare occurrence:
A livestream of a volcano in the Philippines captured a meteor crashing to Earth today. What are the odds?Mayon Volcano, Location: Albay, Luzon, Philippines
— Michael LaFrance (@mlafrance.bsky.social) 2026-05-25T18:13:19.691Z
And this butterfly is not the last of its species, but the last of its subspecies.
The last known caterpillar that could have become a Sacramento Mountains checkerspot butterfly has died.The term for an animal that is the sole survivor of a species is endling. In a sense, we are all endlings—each the last of our kind. All life is precious, irreplaceable.crimethinc.com/endlings
— CrimethInc. Ex-Workers' Collective (@crimethinc.com) 2026-05-22T06:54:40.397Z
If anyone finds/verifies the source of Dawkins’ short lecture – or does an ‘AI or not AI’ (I cannot at the moment), I’d be glad to know it.
A superb, concise articulation! And so memorable in detail. The impression reminded me of a famous saying attributed to Einstein, so I looked that up too :
“It can scarcely be denied that the supreme goal of all theory is to make the irreducible basic elements as simple and as few as possible without having to surrender the adequate representation of a single datum of experience.”
-Albert Einstein
The Ultimate Quotable Einstein, Edited by Alice Calaprice
Page 475 and Page 384-385
Princeton University Press
(Verified on paper), 2010
That quote^^^ and citation is found on this site :
https://quoteinvestigator.com/2011/05/13/einstein-simple/