France has banned Israeli minister Itamar Ben Gvir from entering the country after a video was released showing him overseeing the abuse of detained Gaza-bound flotilla activists. . . www.middleeasteye.net/news/france-...

Israel is a democracy. This makes it difficult to hide the inconvenient fact that it is profoundly racist. The recent episode involving Minister Ben-Gvir taunting an international group of pro-Palestine activists is in many ways revealing. . . www.juancole.com/2026/05/isra...

This week, Israel’s Minister of National Security Itamar Ben-Gvir became an unlikely target of derision across the Israeli political spectrum, including the right-wing. His offense? Revealing the true face of Israel to the world. mondoweiss.net/2026/05/itam...

New in PN: The slow-motion humiliation of RFK Jr "The FDA turmoil is a sign of the administration’s deeply unserious approach to public health. MAHA never had a solid constituency on the right, and its support has eroded further the longer the nation has stared into Kennedy’s beady, fanatic eyes."

Absolutely demented

The president posts an image of Iran as a US state

Trump is human garbage

American Jews Fear Rise in Anti-Semitism From Israel’s Gaza, Iran Wars – Tikun Olam תיקון עולם إصلاح العالم

GIFT ARTICLE: An Israeli strike designed to free Mahmoud Ahmadinejad from house arrest in Tehran, U.S. officials said, was part of an effort to bring about regime change and put him in power. Explore this gift article. You can read it for free. www.nytimes.com/2026/05/19/u...

Out of all the things that didn't happen, this didn't happen the most.

you can see why Melania advises Trump against pantomiming like this. yikes (Roberto Schmidt/Getty)

Trump's chins cast a shadow as he mocks transgender weightlifters during his speech today in New York (Roberto Schmidt/Getty)

Trump mocks transgender weightlifters during his speech today in New York (Roberto Schmidt/Getty)

Trump: “Hello, Greenland!”

Wut

this is real life and he’s trying to kill me every day and every day i grow stronger

This is the Montreal Cognitive Assessment (MOCA). There is no complicated math: they ask you to subtract a single digit number from a 2-digit number less than 100, and do it 5 times in a row. You can see an example below. Either he's lying, he thinks it's hard, or he forgot the question.

Trump on his cognitive test: "It had a question like, 'pick a number, sir, any number.' Okay. 203. 'Multiple by 9. Divide by 2. Add on 1,324. Subtract 1,292. Sir, multiply it out one more time by 19. What is the answer, sir?' I got it right."

Trump: "I am the smartest guy you're ever gonna meet. In fact I took the cogni-titive test. I'm the only one."

Trump: "We won 86% of the counties in America. That's why the map is all red except for two blue stripes, and those were rigged by the way. They were rigged. We had rigged elections."

Trump: "Who likes Crooked Hillary?"

Trump: "I was thinking about this character we have in the House. His name is Hakeem Jeffries. And he's a low IQ person. Very low IQ. He's a dumb guy. He's a dumocrat."

Trump: "The 25 worst cities are blue. Blue means dumocrat"

Trump: "The pharmacies are going out of business. A guy right here, Mr Lutnick, Mr Lutnick is a rich guy, but he was in a drug store and the people with duffel bags, they're putting crap in a duffel bag and walking. How screwed up is our country?"

Trump: "We don't want transgender mutilization of your children"

Trump: "The illegal aliens are all over the place, people are getting shot left and right, the elections are rigged"

Trump: "Illegal immigrants are taking your money"

A poll of American Jews by the Jewish Voters Resource Center offers findings that the communal establishment should find alarming: • 92% believe that the Gaza war has increased anti-Semitism. • Among the list of “top issues” for Jews, Israel places fifth. www.richardsilverstein.com/2026/05/22/a...

Trump and Gabbard claim she's leaving due to her husband's health, but Reuters reports "the ​White House ‌forced her to ⁠resign"

Is that why he keeps saying it? Because it sounds like he’s in a bar in the 80s. “We’re a total smoke show!”

Trump: "You'll start to see very soon. No country will see the growth that we're going to experience."

Trump: "We do have some debt we'd like to take care of and the way you do that is through growth. We're gonna grow our way out of it so fast."

New in PN: @chrislhayes.bsky.social on thinking intelligently about AI "The power that comes from putting a finger on the scale of these models to manipulate political info you consume is so insane to think about. The biggest threat is that it just makes everyone stupider, which is a genuine worry"

Tom Emmer is the type of sycophant that can be found historically in all the wannabe totalitarian regimes that spawned across Europe in the 1930s. "The Leader can do no wrong" is tattooed on his forehead. bsky.app/profile/atru...

Ahmadinejad Is Still Bad for Iranians — and Still Great for Israel

It can't happen too soon. No group of foreign agents should be permitted to poison American democracy

TACO Trump Scuttled Renewed Iran Attack

This report on horrific assaults leaves no doubt whatsoever that a wide swath of Israeli security units have been credibly accused of committing gross violations of human rights. The Leahy Law requires that U.S. security assistance to implicated units cease at once. www.nytimes.com/2026/05/11/o...

Despite friendly relations with Reza Pahlavi and indications Israel sought to install him once the government was toppled, apparently an entirely different plan was afoot... ...Instead, they chose Mahmoud Ahmadinejad as their alternative puppet. www.richardsilverstein.com/2026/05/21/t...

A group of some of the world's leading aid organizations on Thursday said US President Donald Trump's "Board of Peace" for Gaza is "failing", precisely because Israel is still obstructing the vast majority of aid into the enclave. . . www.middleeasteye.net/news/leading...

GIFT ARTICLE The US military has depleted much of its inventory of advanced missile-defense interceptors after expending far more high-end munitions defending Israel amid hostilities with Iran than Israeli forces used themselves... Explore this gift article. You can read it for free. wapo.st/4dVmjDc

The lad who inspired Aesop to write, “The Boy Who Cried Wolf”, has grown up and is now President of the US. Since Feb. 28, 2026, Trump has released 11 statements suggesting the war with Iran was over or that a negotiated deal is close, only it turns out to be a hoax. sonar21.com/the-presiden...

TRUMP: "We have total control of the Strait of Hormuz" TRUMP MOMENTS LATER: "We want the Strait of Hormuz open"

Trump: "If Democrats took control of the country, I think this country is finished. These people are sick."

Trump: "If I didn't win this election, I don't think we would've been a country any longer"

Trump: "I think the elections are so rigged. And we have to do something about it. And we're gonna do something about it."

Trump on Cuba: "Other presidents have looked at doing something for 50, 60 years, and it looks like I'll be the one that does it"

US attorney for SDNY Jay Clayton defends Trump's taxpayer-funded J6 slush fund: "I don't think we're gonna be talking about this issue in a week because the American people are gonna say, 'Look, they leaked his tax returns, they tried to destroy him. Okay, we resolved that.'"