90s Democrat Bill Maher has come to the defense of Kansas City Chiefs kicker Harrison Butker over a recent graduation speech in which he said that one of the “most important” jobs a woman can have is being a homemaker.

“How many of you are sitting here now, about to cross this stage, and are thinking about all the promotions and titles you are going to get in your career? Some of you may go on to lead successful careers in the world. But I would venture to guess that the majority of you are most excited about your marriage and the children you will bring into this world,” Butker told graduates at Benedictine College last weekend.

The NFL just condemned this speech by Super Bowl champion Harrison Butker.

They 𝐫𝐞𝐚𝐥𝐥𝐲 don’t want people to hear it.

It would be a shame if you make it viral. pic.twitter.com/gKy7wJsqpu

— End Wokeness (@EndWokeness) May 16, 2024

Butker’s speech resulted in a collective gasp from the left, which has spent decades programming young women to believe that becoming a housewife is tantamount to failure, and that real women become titans of industry – delegating the raising of children to others, or hitting peak girlboss and simply not reproducing (and definitely not grappling with deep regret as their eggs expire).

For example, these assholes:

And so, coming to Butker’s defense is “Real Time” host Bill Maher, who says he doesn’t see “what the big crime is.”

During a Friday night panel discussion, Maher mocked Butker’s critics for trying to make him out to be “history’s greatest monster.”

“I can’t express how much this guy is not like me,” said Maher. “He’s religious. He loves marriage. He loves kids… And he’s now history’s greatest monster.”

“Again, I don’t agree with much with this guy, but I don’t get the thing. He said… ‘Some of you may go on to lead successful careers in the world.’ Ok, that seems fairly, like, modern. ‘But I would venture to guess that the majority of you are most excited about your marriage and the children you will bring into this world.’ I don’t see what the big crime is. I really don’t,” Maher continued.

“And I think this is part of the problem people have with the left is that lots of people in this country are like this. Like he’s saying some of you may go on to lead successful careers, but a lot of you are excited about this other way that people- everybody used to be. And now can’t that be a choice too?“

“And I feel like they feel very put upon, like there’s only one way to be a good person and that’s to get an advanced degree from one of those a– h–e factories like Harvard,” Maher continued.

Watch:

Bill Maher Drops Unexpected Bomb on Left’s Outrage for Harrison Butker’s Speech

“I don’t see what the big crime is.”

“I really don’t. And I think this is part of the problem people have with the left is… pic.twitter.com/d43KlyZJZC

— The Vigilant Fox 🦊 (@VigilantFox) May 18, 2024

Basically…

Presented without comment. pic.twitter.com/9J8aeArVc2

— Mollie (@MZHemingway) May 17, 2024

Authored by Ann Wright via CommonDreams.org,

Instead of U.S. President Joe Biden marking a red line in the sand demanding that Israel allow aid into Gaza via ground transportation, his inept diplomatic team sent out a plea for help to the U.S. military.

While in the U.S. Army and Army Reserves for 29 years, I thought I had seen some pretty stupid things the military was told by politicians to do. It always begins with politicians deciding the easiest, most sensible solution to a problem would have too much political baggage and cost them votes in the next election. So, they look for a politically expedient solution, one that is invariably very expensive and convoluted.

Attempting a Military Solution for a Political or Diplomat Problem—AGAIN!!!

In this vein, all too often, politicians turn to the U.S. military for a solution to a non-military problem. Then some A-type personality in the military presents a hair-brained idea to the politicians, probably never thinking that the idea would be accepted. Then it is accepted to get the politicians out of a jam, and the next thing you know is that the Rube Goldberg, crazy idea is being funded.

This unbelievable scenario is what has happened with getting humanitarian aid into Gaza for the starving survivors of the Israeli genocide of Gaza. Instead of U.S. President Joe Biden marking a red line in the Israel/Gaza/Egypt sand demanding that Israel allow into Gaza the miles of tractor-trailer loads of food and medicine that have been stalled for months at the Rafah border crossing, Biden’s inept diplomatic team sent out a plea for help to the U.S. military.

Palestinians in Gaza and citizens around the world will not forget that miles of supplies are just feet away from Gaza at the Rafah crossing and the U.S. will not use its pressure on Israel to open the gates at Rafah.

And the U.S. military, always looking for validation of its immense “capabilities,” seized the opportunity to use one of its little-known assets—the Army’s Joint Logistics Over the Shore, or JLOTS, system that provides bridging and water access capabilities—to help out the failed U.S. diplomatic efforts to get the U.S.’s “strongest ally in the Middle East” to end the starvation of hundreds of thousands of Palestinians in Gaza by letting the massive truck convoys filled with food and medicines into Gaza.

Normally used to move military equipment across rivers where bridges have been blown up—many times by the U.S. military itself—and sometimes to transfer military equipment from a ship onto shore, the U.S. Army’s small navy swung into action and began sailing to the Mediterranean in U.S. Army ships filled with barges that can be locked together to form landing docks and causeways.

Rube Goldberg Complex of Construction and Transportation Ideas

In a Rube Goldberg complex of construction and transportation ideas, the U.S. military anchored to the sea floor three miles off the northern coast of Gaza a floating dock system onto which large cargo ships can dock.

Cargo ships will off-load pallets and possibly container loads of humanitarian assistance—long-life packaged food and medical supplies—on the three-mile off-shore dock. This cargo will have undergone inspection by Israeli authorities in the port of Larnaca, Cyprus, 200 miles from Gaza.

The inspection process involves Cypriot customs, Israeli teams, the U.S., and the United Nations Office for Project Services. The U.S. Agency for International Development has set up a coordination cell in Cyprus.

Two-thousand trucks to offload ONE ship driving 1,800 feet on a causeway that will be dangerously affected by tides, winds, and waves is a recipe for disaster.

From the cargo ships, food and medical supplies will be transferred into the backs of U.S. Army trucks (probably 2.5-ton trucks) that have arrived on the floating pier brought there by two types of smaller Army boats—Logistic Support Vessels, or LSVs, and Landing Craft Utility boats (LCUs). LSVs can hold 15 trucks each and the LCUs about five.

The loaded 2.5-ton trucks will be driven back onto the LSVs and motored three miles to the second floating pier system constructed by the U.S. military.

The trucks will then be driven off the LSVs onto the second pier and down a two-lane, 1,800-foot (six U.S. football fields long) causeway anchored onto Gaza land by the Israeli military. The causeway will be anchored onto Gaza shores by the Israeli military because the U.S. military is forbidden to have “boots on the ground” in Gaza.

The truckloads of food and medical supplies will then be driven somewhere… and supplies distributed by some organization… yet to be determined according to the latest news reports.

The empty trucks will then be driven back along the two-lane, 1,800-foot causeway to the floating pier where they will be driven into the small LSVs, and the LSVs then sailed back three miles to the larger off-shore pier and the process begun again. The long causeway should be a cause of alarm for drivers, as the winds and waves so dramatically affected the construction of the causeway that most of the causeway was put together in the calm waters of Ashdod, an Israeli harbor, after winds and waves made construction of the causeway in place off Gaza impossible. Parts of the causeway are now being towed 20 miles from Ashdod harbor to northern Gaza to be linked into place.

While Thousands of Truck Loads of Cargo Wait at the Rafah Border Crossing, It Will Take 2,000 Truck Loads to Empty Each 5,000 Ton Cargo Ship  

if a large cargo ship has 5,000 tons of food and medical supplies to be off-loaded, and if each truck can hold 2.5 tons of cargo, it will take 2,000 trucks to take the cargo from one ship. If there are 15 trucks on each LSV, then the LSVs will have to make 133 trips to get the trucks to the 1,800 foot causeway.

If the LCUs that hold only five trucks are mostly used, then it would take 400 trips to get the cargo to shore.

Two-thousand trucks to offload ONE ship driving 1,800 feet on a causeway that will be dangerously affected by tides, winds, and waves is a recipe for disaster.

A graphic, not to scale, showing how the aid delivery system will work. (Photo: Department of Defense)

Will Israel Bomb the Docks, Piers, and Causeway? Remember the USS Liberty!

The possibility of probability is high that Israeli military jets, drones, and artillery may “mistakenly” target the pier complex… or Hamas or other militant groups may decide that the U.S. complicity in the genocide of over 35,000 Palestinians in Gaza outweighs the meager food and medical supplies the U.S. is bringing into Gaza, which presents another aspect of the recipe for disaster for the U.S. Rube Goldberg pier.

U.S. military personnel should remember the Israeli attack on a U.S. military ship, the USS Liberty. In 1967, the Israeli military bombed and torpedoed a U.S. ship off Gaza, killing 34 and wounding 171, and almost sunk the ship. The U.S. cover-up for its ally Israel’s brutal, lethal attack on a U.S. military ship continues to this day, as does the U.S. complicity in the Israeli genocide of Gaza.

The World Will Not Forget

Palestinians in Gaza and citizens around the world will not forget that miles of supplies are just feet away from Gaza at the Rafah crossing and the U.S. will not use its pressure on Israel to open the gates at Rafah, instead offering an expensive, idiotic solution to an easily solvable problem.

Starwood Real Estate Income Trust (SREIT), a $10 billion non-traded REIT ranked second-largest behind Blackstone’s struggling BREIT, faces a severe liquidity crunch as investor redemptions soar amid concerns ‘higher for longer’ interest rates will worsen the commercial real estate storm. 

The Financial Times reported at the end of last week that SREIT is “running low on liquidity as investors demand their money back” and tapped $1.3 billion of its $1.55 billion credit facility since the start of 2023.

Redemptions have jumped among concerned investors. In the first quarter, SREIT investors requested $1.3 billion of their cash back. However, the fund only returned $500 million of the requests in the quarter because of a 5% redemption cap. 

Now, Barry Sternlicht’s SREIT is in dire straits. The current pace of redemptions suggests the fund will run out of cash in the second half of the year unless it disposes of properties or expands its credit facility. The filing from last week shows the fund has $225 million left to draw down. 

The outflows are similar to what happened to Blackstone’s BREIT over the last few years. At least now, BREIT has been able to meet 100% of its redemption requests for the first time since 2022, according to a notice issued by Blackstone to investors on March 1. 

“Liquidity isn’t something that people think about on the way up, but it can become a concern suddenly,” Phil Bak, chief executive of Armada Investors, which invests in listed REITs. 

Bak said, “When it comes to private REITs, liquidity concerns have been dismissed, and they will become paramount again.”

FT spoke with an individual close to SREIT who said ‘greater liquidity’ is expected soon after asset sales. They said, “Starwood could sell other assets to raise cash.” 

The REIT industry has been under severe pressure since Fed chair Powell began raising interest rates in early 2022. Tighter monetary conditions and higher interest rates for the medium term as inflation remains elevated have pressured CRE values of office towers. This has led to a 16% decline in SREIT’s declared net asset value from its peak in September 2022 at nearly $10 billion. 

For the CRE industry, Goldman’s Lotfi Karoui outlined days ago that the highest share of CRE loans on record will hit maturity walls in the next two years. 

Almost a trillion of CRE mortgages must be paid down, refinanced, or extended by the end of 2024.

The problem is that the Fed’s rate cut cycle has been pushed out to at least the fall. Interest-rate swaps on Friday showed traders pricing about two quarter-point rate cuts by year-end, with about an 80% chance the first one will come in September. 

Between SREIT and BREIT, the smart money has been panic-running for the exit door. Redemption caps have saved these non-traded REITs from totally imploding. 

Nickel prices on the London Metal Exchange just had their best week in nearly a year and a half. The surge comes as social unrest rocks New Caledonia. A new report highlighted last week about surging demand for base metals driven by the clean energy push, as well as central bankers hinting at interest rate cuts. This has fueled an upswing in nickel prices and commodity prices. 

Let’s begin with the unrest and riots that have gripped the French Pacific territory of New Caledonia. Additional French troops, including elite security forces, are en route to help authorities restore order. We outlined the latest on the riots in a note titled “France Blames Deadly New Caledonia Uprising On TikTok” on Friday morning. 

This note will be commodity-centric and focus mainly on the nickel market. Last year, New Caledonia was the world’s third-biggest producer of the battery metal. The tiny Pacific island accounted for 6% of global output, according to the US Geological Survey.

So far, French miner Eramet SA’s output in the country has been disrupted, and it is currently operating at minimum capacity. This news helped propel nickel futures trading on the London Metal Exchange to its best trading week since early December 2022, rising a little more than 11%. 

Nickel futures are trading at $20,880 a ton, or about the highest level since September 2023. 

“We have seen these riots . . . If New Caledonia has an ongoing problem, then it is going to make a difference,” Dan Smith, an analyst at Amalgamated Metal Trading, a brokerage, told the Financial Times. He noted that traders had been”downbeat” on the nickel market in terms of being oversupplied and that this sudden price spike had caught traders off guard. 

However, Smith said the “overwhelming consensus” among traders was that the nickel market was “badly oversupplied,” suggesting that the current rally would not last. “Demand is good for nickel [at the moment] but supply is even stronger,” he added.

Ending the week was a report by the International Energy Agency that forecasted strong demand for nickel and other base metals critical for the transition to cleaner power grids as the powering up America and Europe theme takes off (read: “the Next AI Trade“). 

“The world’s appetite for technologies such as solar panels, electric cars and batteries is growing fast . . . but we cannot satisfy it without reliable and expanding supplies of critical minerals,” said IEA executive director Fatih Birol.

Rising nickel prices come as a massive dislocation of physical copper has sparked a squeeze in prices in New York. 

The Bloomberg Industrial Metal Subindex has soared. 

Spot commodity prices tracked by Bloomberg are also surging. 

Jeff Currie might be right about an emerging commodity supercycle. And, of course, high commodity prices are bad news for Fed Powell’s inflation fight. 

All of this chaos is happening as the world splinters into a multi-polar state, an indication commodity prices will remain elevated. 

Authored by Susan Crabtree via RealClearPolitics.com,

For President Biden and congressional Democrats, the fierce party division over the campus protests and the war in Gaza is full of warning signs during the 2024 election year. The unrest is unlikely to stop when universities break for the summer; protesters are pledging to disrupt the August Democratic National Convention planned to be held in Chicago. 

Most House Democrats have been reticent on the antisemitic protests and encampments roiling college graduations this month, while a handful have vocally defended or even celebrated the student protests as displays of protected free speech. 

Rep. Ilhan Omar, a Minnesota Democrat, said she was proud of her daughter, a Barnard College student who was suspended for participating in illegal protests and who was among 100 people arrested after demonstrations at Columbia University in April. Throughout the months of campus protests, members of the progressive “squad,” Reps. Rashida Tlaib of Michigan and Cori Bush of Missouri have applauded “courageous” anti-Israel student protestors while condemning efforts by university administrators and police to dismantle the encampments. 

A RealClearPolitics analysis of Federal Election Commission data shows one possible reason most Democrats are trying to avoid the campus fray: House Democrats’ reelection campaigns have accepted $6.5 million from three major political families, which have helped bankroll several student groups participating in the protests. The family members cut most of those checks over the last two years, although some of the donations to longstanding House members came over the last decade.

The names are well-known among Democratic funding circles: Soros, Rockefeller, and Pritzker. Yet before the anti-Jewish protests swept college campuses over the last few months, their financial ties to the student groups were not widely known. Illinois Gov. J.B. Pritzker, a member of the same wealthy Pritzker family, is not among the donors. 

Several investigative media reports over the last month have uncovered the extensive financial ties between these families and student groups involved in organizing anti-Israel protests and activism across the country predating the Oct. 7 Hamas terrorist attacks on Israel and in its aftermath and during Israel’s war against Hamas in Gaza. 

The donors to student groups include George Soros, a billionaire philanthropist and Democratic campaign contributor who helms the Open Society Foundation and his family members; the Pritzkers, the owners of Hyatt Hotels Corporation; and members of the famed Rockefeller family, including relatives of the wealthy American Banker and philanthropist David Rockefeller. The donations have either gone directly to student groups involved in campus demonstrations or to umbrella foundations and organizations, which have, in turn, channeled the funds to the protestors. 

The House Democratic Congressional Committee and the House Majority PAC, which was founded by former Speaker Nancy Pelosi and is directly affiliated with the House Democratic leadership, collected most of those funds, nearly $5.5 million by those two Democratic campaign entities alone, FEC records show. 

Meanwhile, 30 House Democrats, including Democratic Leader Hakeem Jeffries and other members of the leadership, received a combined total of $856,858 from the Soros, Pritzker, and Rockefeller families, while a dozen Democratic candidates in competitive races received a total of $139,000. RCP did not examine Senate recipients. 

The House members in competitive races who received funds from at least one of the three families include Reps. Mary Peltola of Alaska, Mike Levin of California, Yadira Caraveo of Colorado, Johana Hayes of Connecticut, Eric Sorensen of Illinois, Frank Mrvan of Indiana, Sharice Davids, Jared Golden, Hillary Scholten, Angie Craig of Minnesota, Don Davis, Chris Pappas of New Hampshire, Gabe Vasquez, of New Mexico, Susie Lee of Nevada, Steven Horsford of Nevada, Paty Ryan of New York, Marcy Kaptur of Ohio, Andrea Salinas of Oregon, Susan Wild of Pennsylvania, and Matt Cartwright of Pennsylvania. 

Craig’s campaigns have received the most of any other House member from the three families: $96,490 since 2018. Lee’s campaign received the second most: $75,000 since 2017. 

The Democratic candidates who accepted donations from at least one of the three families include Kirsten Engel in Arizona; Adam Gray, Rudy Salas, George Whitesides, and Will Rollins in California; Lanon Baccam in Iowa; Tony Vargas in Nebraska; Lauren Gillen, Mondaire Jones, and Josh Riley in New York; Ashley Ehasz in Pennsylvania; and Michelle Vallejo in Texas.

Neither the DCCC nor any of the House members and candidates responded to RealClearPolitics’ questions about whether they had any concerns about the financial ties between the Soros, Pritzker, and Rockefeller families to these student groups. 

Several organizations have played key roles in pro-Palestinian student activism and protests and have received donations from Soros, Pritzker, and Rockefeller family members. The U.S. Campaign for Palestinian Rights, a pro-Palestinian advocacy group, has received at least $700,000 in Open Society Foundation grants since 2018 and $355,000 from the Rockefeller Brothers since 2019. 

In 2023, the USCPR had three fellows – Nidaa Lafi, Craig Birckhead-Morton, and Malak Afaneh – all of whom have figured prominently in the nationwide protests, the New York Post reported in late April. The group provides up to $7,800 for its community-based fellows and between $2,880 and $3,660 for its campus-based fellows for spending at least eight hours a week organizing campaigns led by Palestinian organizations.

While all were involved in student protests over the last several months, the University of California at Berkeley’s Afanah, co-president of Law Students for Justice in Palestine, made the most headlines. Afanah commandeered a microphone during a graduation dinner at the law school dean’s home to speak out against Israel’s war in Gaza. She claimed a First Amendment right to disrupt the gathering and then accused the dean’s wife of assaulting her when she forcefully asked her to leave. 

The Open Society Foundations defended its funding of these groups and their right to “peacefully protest” in an April 26 X.com post. 

“We have a long history of fighting antisemitism, Islamophobia, and all forms of racism and hate, and have advocated for the rights of Palestinians and Israelis and for peaceful resolution to the conflict in Israel and the Occupied Palestinian Territories,” the Foundations said. 

“Our funding is a matter of public record, disclosed on our website, fully compliant with U.S. laws, and is part of our commitment to continuing open debate that is ultimately the only hope for peace in the region,” the organization asserted. 

Jewish Voice for Peace and IfNotNow are two additional organizations deeply involved in the student protests and backed by the Tides Foundations, which is Soros-funded. Jewish Voice for Peace, which openly describes itself as anti-Zionist, has also received $500,000 in funds from the Rockefeller Brothers Fund over the last five years. David Rockefeller Jr. sits on the Rockefeller Brothers’ board. The group has separately provided grants to both the Tides Foundation and the Tides Center, as Politico reported in early May. 

The Pritzkers founded the Libra Foundation, which seeds smaller nonprofits, many of which have participated in pro-Palestinian marches, according to the same Politico report. One of them is the Climate Justice Alliance, which has labeled President Biden “Genocide Joe” for his handling of Israel’s war against Hamas in Gaza. 

Others benefitting from Pritzker largesse include Black Organizing for Leadership and Dignity, which has helped promote anti-Israel protests, and the Immigrant Defense Project, which participated in a protest in D.C. earlier this year in which police arrested a number of participants. The Pritzkers also help financially support the Tides Foundation, which funds other small left-wing groups, including Adalah Justice Project, a prominent participant in the Columbia University protests and encampment, which police disbanded in early May. 

House Republicans have launched multiple investigations into the funding of the campus protests and encampments. Earlier this week, the chairs of two GOP-led House committees, the Education and the Workforce and the House Oversight and Accountability panels, sent Treasury Secretary Janet Yellen a letter requesting all suspicious activity reports, or SARs, connected to 20 organizations that have reportedly led, financed, and participated in the antisemitic protests on college campuses. SARs are documents that financial institutions and other professionals file with the Treasury’s Financial Crimes Enforcement Network to flag law enforcement to potential instances of money laundering or terrorist financing. 

“It’s no coincidence that the day after the October 7 Hamas terrorist attack, antisemitic mobs began springing up on college campuses across the country,” Rep. Virginia Foxx, who chairs the Education and the Workforce Committee, said in a statement.

 “These protests have been coordinated and well-organized, indicating that outside groups or influences may be at play. American education is under attack. It’s critical that Congress investigates how these groups, who are tearing apart our institutions, are being funded before it’s too late.” 

House Oversight Chairman James Comer pledged that his committee would follow the money trail and stressed that the antisemitism “thriving” on many college campuses “must not go unchecked.” 

Topping the list that Foxx and Comer sent Yellen is Students for Justice in Palestine, or SJP, which has close ties to several anti-Israel organizations. After the Oct. 7 attacks, Students for Justice in Palestine’s national steering committee distributed a “tool kit” for activists that proclaimed, “glory to our resistance” and included a template for an advertisement showing protesters beneath a Palestinian flag. The image contained a paraglider, an apparent tribute to Hamas’ use of paragliders who slaughtered 360 youthful concert-goers, raped others, and took 44 people hostage during the Oct. 7 attack. That tool kit drew criticism from the Anti-Defamation League, which accused it of “celebrating terrorism.” 

Students for Palestine has since been banned or suspended by Brandeis, Columbia, and George Washington University, among other colleges and universities. During his presidential campaign, Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis banned the group from state campuses, referring to their alleged ties to Hamas.

“We had a group of Students for Justice in Palestine,” DeSantis said. 

“They claimed solidarity with Hamas. We deactivated them. We were not going to use tax dollars to fund jihad.”

A 2016 report from the Cohen Center for Modern Jewish Studies at Brandeis stated that having a chapter on campus is “one of the strongest predictors of perceiving a hostile climate toward Israel and Jews.” 

The Foundation for Defense of Democracies’ Jonathan Schanzer, a former Treasury official responsible for designating numerous terrorist financiers, said his organization has been watching the financial network behind Students for Justice in Palestine for several years. The group, he said, has an umbrella organization known as Americans Muslims for Palestine, or AMP, a nonprofit that was previously based in Chicago but more recently moved to Falls Church, Virginia. For the last several years, AMP has been embroiled in litigation, accusing it of being an “alter-ego” or shell organization for the Islamic Association for Palestine, or IAP, a disbanded organization linked to Hamas. 

In 2023, Schanzer testified before the House Ways and Means Committee that IAP had received numerous checks and deposited them into Hamas’ bank account, information uncovered during the litigation. In some cases, the deposits included the memo line “for Palestinian martyrs only,” Schanzer noted. 

Hatem Bazian, AMP’s founder, was a frequent speaker at IAP forums, and Osama Abuirshaid, who edited IAP’s newspaper, is now AMP’s executive director, Schanzer said. In addition, Abuirshaid has published articles in English and Arabic praising Hamas, noting in them that he has communicated with Hamas leader Mousa Abu Marzook. 

AMP created Students for Justice in Palestine, which started with just a handful of schools and has now expanded to 200 U.S. campuses with chapters. The group is a loosely connected network of autonomous chapters with no named leader. The structure allows it to avoid registering as a nonprofit and filing tax documents. Bazian, who founded the first chapter 30 years ago at the University of California at Berkeley, has described the student organization as “a symbolic franchise without a franchise fee.” 

Bazian, who is now the chairman of American Muslims for Palestine’s board and a lecturer at Berkeley, has downplayed its ties to the student organization. He says AMP has only provided printed materials and offered grants for students to attend conferences or host speakers but has no supervisory role or control over the Students for Justice in Palestine. 

Schanzer, however, strongly disagrees. While he stresses that FDD has not produced any evidence of present criminal wrongdoing implicating AMP, he argues that AMP and its organizers deserve intense scrutiny from members of Congress. AMP, he said, has, over the last two decades, provided checks to students at Northwestern, DePaul, and Loyola universities, among others. 

Last year, Bazian curiously criticized CNN’s Jake Tapper’s “racist” coverage of Rep. Tlaib, arguing in a post from his own X.com account that, “As Jews who believe in human rights and justice, we demand you do better.” Schanzer notes that Bazian is Muslim, not Jewish, and the tweet has led to suspicion that Bazian thought he was logged into Jewish Voice for Peace’s account but mistakenly tweeted from his personal account. 

Nine Americans and Israeli survivors and victims of the Oct. 7 Hamas attacks are suing AMP and Students for Justice in Palestine, alleging that groups collaborated with Hamas to legitimize the Hamas attacks and provide public relations services for the terrorist organization. Meanwhile, the University of Florida chapter of Students for Justice in Palestine sued the state, challenging the Chancellor of the State University System’s order to state universities to deactivate the student group. 

In what appears an intentionally-timed message, Ukraine’s military launched its largest-ever drone attack on Russian territory while President Putin was visiting China where he held two days of meetings with Xi Jinping.

“Fifty-one UAVs were destroyed and intercepted over Crimea, 44 over the Krasnodar region, six over the Belgorod region and one over Kursk region,” Russia’s defense ministry announced of the Friday attack.

This means well over 100 kamikaze drones were sent across several regions, particularly around Belgorod and the Black Sea. Given the Kremlin is claiming its forces intercepted that amount, the total number of UAVs deployed across the border was likely far and above that figure, perhaps even double, as clearly some made it through anti-air defenses.

“Belgorod Governor Vyacheslav Gladkov said a mother and child were killed while traveling in a car, and authorities managed to extinguish the fire at the Tuapse refinery,” as cited in Fox News. “The child was in critical condition. Doctors did everything possible to save him,” Gladkov said.

Sevastopol was forced to cancel all schools and classes, and to close public buildings, and there was confirmation of damage there.

Ukraine is apparently seeking to retaliate for Russia’s ongoing major Kharkiv offensive, while Putin has linked the new Russian operation to push deeper into the northeast sector of Ukraine with pro-Kiev forces’ constant cross-border drone attacks and shelling.

Dozens of Russians have been killed and wounded in Belgorod over the last several months. When asked about the worsening situation, Putin told a press briefing in Harbin, China on Friday that “what is happening on the Kharkiv front is their own fault.”

Referencing places like Belgorod city, Putin says “Civilians are dying there” – explaining that “It’s obvious… they are shooting directly at the city center, at residential areas. And I said publicly that if this continues, we will be forced to create a security zone, a buffer zone. That is what we are doing.”

Russian media has reported that the aim is to establish this buffer zone at least 10km within Ukrainian territory, making it more difficult for Ukraine forces to shell Russian villages and cities. According to more of Moscow’s intentions in the region via Russian state media:

Russia has no intention of capturing the Ukrainian city of Kharkov, which is close to the Russian border, President Vladimir Putin has said. Moscow’s forces have been making notable gains in the area in recent days.

Speaking to reporters at the Harbin Institute of Technology during his two-day visit to China, Putin commented on Russia’s operations in Kharkov Region, asserting that Moscow is achieving success on the battlefield by acting “strictly according to plan.”

Also on Friday Ukraine’s President Zelensky warned the public that Russia’s summer assault “could consist of several waves. There was the first wave” in the Kharkiv region, and that the country should brace for more.

Zelensky is meanwhile still claiming his goal is still the “liberation of Crimea”…

“Zelensky said that after deoccupation, Crimea will become one of the best places to live in Europe: “It will definitely be – when the power of our resilience, our weapons, our diplomacy and the power of justice for Ukraine will ensure the liberation of Crimea from occupation.… pic.twitter.com/mtWnJLLWGp

— Ivan Katchanovski (@I_Katchanovski) May 18, 2024

There has lately been widespread media acknowledgement that Ukrainian lines are being pushed back rapidly, and Ukraine officials including Zelensky have lashed out at Western allies for a significant delay in weapons and ammo.

Via Middle East Eye

The United States is focused on tracking down Hamas’s Gaza chief, Yahya Sinwar, amid a new push by the White House to help Israel declare “total victory” so it can bring an end to the war in Gaza, US officials have told Middle East Eye. Current and former US officials, who spoke with MEE on condition of anonymity because of the sensitive nature of the mission, said the US was expanding its search efforts across the region, after believing the 61-year-old was hiding in tunnels deep below Gaza.

A US official, speaking on condition of anonymity as they were not authorized to speak to the media, told MEE that the Biden administration is now exploring possibilities that Sinwar fled to Egypt’s Sinai peninsula, and from there may have even escaped to either Lebanon or Syria. 

The White House referred MEE to comments from US national security advisor Jake Sullivan earlier this week, that he wouldn’t comment on intelligence about Sinwar. The current and former officials did not reference any specific intelligence but said one factor driving the debate was that US intelligence was lagging on Sinwar’s last whereabouts. 

According to the officials, the Biden administration is roughly one month behind on tracking Sinwar’s last known location, which was within the Gaza Strip. 

Bruce Riedel, a former CIA official who also advised four US presidents on national security, told MEE that the lack of clarity surrounding Sinwar’s last location was “pretty bad.” When asked about the timeframe, he said: “One month means you aren’t even close to real-time information.”

Last month, a Hamas official said that Sinwar had visited combat zones above ground and had held deliberations with the group’s leadership abroad. 

Speaking to the pan-Arab news outlet Al-Arabi Al-Jadeed (or The New Arab), the Hamas official said Sinwar was not always staying in tunnels, as claimed by Israel, but also performing his duties in the field. MEE could not independently verify the reports on his whereabouts. 

Tracking Sinwar has taken on a new urgency within the US intelligence community because the Biden administration believes it could help pressure Israel to end the war by declaring victory, the officials said.

US President Joe Biden alluded to that strategy last week when he told CNN: “I said to Bibi (Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu), ‘Don’t make the same mistake we made in America. We wanted to get bin Laden. We’ll help you get Sinwar’.”

The parallel between hunting Sinwar and al-Qaeda chief Osama Bin Laden underlines the extreme difficulty the US and Israel face trying to find Sinwar. The hunt for Bin Laden took ten years, and when he was located, he was in Pakistan, roughly one kilometre away from a military academy of the US’s counterterrorism ally.

According to the officials, Washington wants to focus Israel’s energy on finding key Hamas leaders such as Sinwar and Mohammad Deif, the head of the al-Qassam Brigades, as a way to avert a wider full-scale assault on Rafah.

The Biden administration, which continues to provide Israel with military and intelligence support, has said it would withhold offensive arms from Israel if it attacks “population centrers”, referring to Rafah, the southern Gaza border city which currently houses around 1.4 million displaced Palestinians.

On Sunday, The New York Times reported that US officials believed Sinwar was not in Rafah but likely remains in Khan Younis, a city that Israeli forces laid siege to between December and April. Sinwar himself previously bragged in 2021 that there were 310 miles of tunnels in the Gaza Strip.

A former US intelligence official familiar with Hamas told MEE that one of Sinwar’s brothers, Mohammad, oversaw tunnel construction between Sinai and Gaza and has deep ties to smuggling networks in Sinai, a factor that could aid Sinwar’s escape. 

William Usher, a former senior Middle East analyst at the CIA, told MEE, “Right up until 7 October, Hamas had pretty unimpeded access to the tunnel network. They had contingency plans to put key leaders out of harm’s way,” he said. “In the past, Hamas went to Lebanon, Syria and even Iran,” Usher said. “It wouldn’t shock me if Sinwar was hiding there.”

HAMAS LEADER ISMAIL HANIYEH SAYS
“WE MUST UNITE AGAINST ISRAEL”

He emphasized unity in the struggle against their common adversary. pic.twitter.com/PpT6Djda2w

— Sulaiman Ahmed (@ShaykhSulaiman) May 16, 2024

US boosts intelligence-sharing with Israel

On Monday, The Washington Post reported that the US was offering Israel new intelligence to help track Hamas leaders in exchange for Israel not launching the assault on Rafah.

That report was carried by some Israeli news outlets under the title: US withholding “sensitive intelligence” on Hamas from Israel. However, several current and former US and Arab diplomats, as well as defence and intelligence officials, told MEE it was highly unlikely the US would withhold information on Hamas from Israel.

In January, The New York Times reported that US national security advisor Jake Sullivan ordered the creation of a new task force to collect information on senior Hamas leaders and the location of hostages in Gaza, and share that intelligence with Israel.

One of the main challenges for the US is that it paid little attention to Hamas in the lead-up to 7 October, analysts and former US officials said. The Palestinian movement is a designated terrorist organisation by the US, but whilst it was boxed into ruling the impoverished Gaza Strip, it was never considered a major threat to the US.

The last time the US faced a major security threat in Gaza was in 2003, when a US diplomatic convoy was bombed there, killing three Americans. “The US depends on Israel to a large extent to share intelligence with us on what’s happening in Gaza because it has historically been their priority,” Usher said.

The US officials said that the Biden administration had accelerated intelligence, surveillance and reconnaissance (ISR) coordination with Israel. Meanwhile, a former US official said that Israel would be particularly interested in tapping into the US’s geospatial intelligence capabilities.

Leverage over talks

One of the routes the US is exploring to track Sinwar is the ceasefire talks, the sources said. While the face-to-face negotiators on Hamas’s behalf are the political leaders based in Qatar, Sinwar is widely believed to have the final say on any agreement, as the group holds captives in Gaza and exercises control over military units.

Current and former Arab and US officials told MEE that Sinwar is probably relying on a circuitous network of couriers and potentially messaging apps to communicate with Hamas officials abroad. “If he was using a mobile phone, he’d be dead already,” Riedel told MEE.

An Arab official familiar with Hamas told MEE that the group has had years of experience learning to cloak its communication during previous wars with Israel. “This is a guy from a different generation who is used to communicating off the grid,” the official said.

According to US officials, whilst Algeria and Turkey also maintain dialogue with Hamas, Washington is leaning on Egypt to rule out whether Sinwar fled to Sinai. Egypt’s military intelligence talks directly to Hamas’s armed wing, giving them better access to Hamas than any of Washington’s other Arab partners. 

The current and former US and Arab officials told MEE that if Sinwar fled the Gaza Strip, it could be a blow to Hamas’s morale. Although he has been described as “prepared to die in Gaza”, one US official said that Hamas’s endurance on the battlefield after seven months may be impacting his decision-making.

“He might want to reconstitute for Hamas 3.0,” the US official said. Despite the US effort, some doubt that killing Sinwar would be enough for the US to press Israel into a ceasefire agreement.

Jonathan Panikoff, the director of the Scowcroft Middle East Security Initiative at the Atlantic Council, told MEE, “killing Sinwar might be sufficient for the US to decide its time for Israel to declare victory and move on, but it’s not clear that it would be sufficient for Netanyahu’s political survival”.

“Ultranationalists like Ben Gvir and Smotrich will likely still demand a military operation in Rafah.” MEE also reached out to Syria’s UN mission in New York, and Lebanon and Egypt’s embassies in Washington DC for comment on Sinwar’s whereabouts, but didn’t receive a reply by the time of publication. 

The Biden administration has reacted to what might be called the hug heard around the world (or ‘felt’ perhaps). During the last day of Russian President Vladimir Putin’s two-day visit to China where he met with President Xi Jinping, the two shared an ultra-rare embrace in host city for the visit Harbin.

During the two leaders’ final ‘goodbye’ interaction, it was Xi who appeared to initiate the hug. One regional expert, Arnaud Bertrand, has commented “It is indeed incredibly uncommon to hug in Chinese culture, especially for senior officials, which is why you can see Putin is taken aback at first.”

Xi Jinping hugged Vladimir Putin. Heads are exploding in America’s Deep State.

The multipolar world is here.pic.twitter.com/rIKW166OIh

— Danny Haiphong (@SpiritofHo) May 17, 2024

White House national security communications adviser John Kirby weighed in later in the day Friday, saying somewhat sarcastically, “That’s nice for them.” 

Kirby went on to say that it’s “no surprise” that Putin and Xi “continue to try to develop this burgeoning relationship” but that that it remains officials in both governments “aren’t necessarily all that trustful” of each other, according to the remarks.

“What they have in common is a desire to challenge the international rules-based order, challenge the network of alliances and partnerships that the United States enjoys,” Kirby followed with. He said the two are trying to “look for ways to bolster each other’s national security interests as well.”

However, there have been exceptions when it comes to the diplomatic past and Xi has hugged Western leaders at times too…

Actually, this is very common these days. In 2019, Xi and Macron hug each other in Shanghai.
In Xi’s latest state visit to France, Macron hug Xi before Xi climbed the steps to his plane. pic.twitter.com/bPHEvZ7fxI

— Shen Shiwei 沈诗伟 (@shen_shiwei) May 17, 2024

And an analyst quoted in the NY Times saw it as an expression of “disdain” aimed at Washington. “Xi’s very deliberate embrace of Putin for the cameras wasn’t just to emphasize the closeness of the political relationship between the two countries and their leaders,” said Richard McGregor of the East Asia at the Lowy Institute in Sydney.

“There was also a touch of disdain directed at Washington, which has been pressuring Beijing to withdraw support from Moscow. That clearly isn’t going to happen in any substantive fashion.”

The visit culminated in a joint statement pledging deepened cooperation in sectors that include energy, the military, and space.

🇷🇺🇪🇺🇺🇸 US sanctions European partners, it’s what they do – Putin

“The Europeans swallow it up, once again confirming that they are vassals of America,” pic.twitter.com/TxjFqc46nY

— DD Geopolitics (@DD_Geopolitics) May 17, 2024

As for questions surrounding reports that Putin is favorable to China’s vision for a roadmap to peace in Ukraine, Putin was quoted as saying in Xinhua, “We have never refused to negotiate. We are seeking a comprehensive, sustainable and just settlement of this conflict through peaceful means,”

“We are open to a dialogue on Ukraine, but such negotiations must take into account the interests of all countries involved in the conflict, including ours,” he continued. Putin said he informed the Chinese leader in detail about “the situation in Ukraine” and added, “We are grateful for the initiative of our Chinese colleagues and friends to regulate the situation.”

The city of Harbin was apparently chosen in part as it has Russian cultural roots…

Putin visits Orthodox Church in Harbin, China pic.twitter.com/NberFgPyG0

— RT (@RT_com) May 17, 2024

Xi had said during the visit, “Both sides agree that a political settlement of the Ukraine crisis is the correct direction.” And further “China’s position on this issue has been consistent and clear, including … the respect for the sovereignty and territorial integrity of all countries and the legitimate security concerns of all parties.”

The Pentagon meanwhile took the opportunity to issue a fresh warning to China, with Ely Ratner, assistant secretary of defense for Indo-Pacific Security Affairs, he communicated to a Chinese military official “serious concern over the [Peoples Republic of China’s] support for Russia’s defense industrial base that enables Russia’s war in Ukraine.”

Authored by Mike Shedlock via MishTalk.com,

For many reasons, the Fed will struggle to contain inflation. This is part one on the Fed’s struggle. It covers deficit spending and interest on the debt.

Key Points

• The government is running a cumulative deficit of $1.1 trillion so far in FY2024 ($46 billion more than the same period in the prior fiscal year when adjusted for timing shifts)

• Revenues were $2.2 trillion through February

• Outlays were $3.3 trillion through March

The above is according to the Bipartisan Policy Organization.

Those numbers do not include a $95 billion aid bill for Ukraine and Israel that recently passed Congress.

The projections look worse.

Revenue and Outlays Projections

“As spending continues to outpace revenues, deficits will exceed $1.5 trillion (an average of 5.6% of GDP) in each of the next ten years. In comparison to May 2023’s budget outlook, deficits are projected to be a cumulative $1.4 trillion less over FY2024-2033.”

This report as well as White House economic projections, and Congressional Budget Office projections are all too optimistic.

Q: Why?
A: None of them factor in a recession all the way through 2054.

The Fed makes the same optimistic assumptions in its projections.

Fed Summary of Economic Projections March 2024 vs December 2023

Compared to December of 2023 the Fed upped its central tendency of GDP expectations, core inflation, and the expected Fed Funds Rate as noted in my March 20, assessment Fed’s Dot Plot is More Hawkish Towards Cuts in March vs. December

The key points are the Fed assumes no recessions and the Fed assumes no matter what Congress does that it will hold inflation to two percent over the long term.

In other words, the Fed assumes that it is in control when history suggests that it isn’t.

The Fed has never forecast a recession, nor has the Fed spotted one in real time.

The deficit is now over $34 trillion with debt held by the public at $27 trillion. Interest on the national debt is over $1 trillion.

Money that would go for investment instead goes to bondholders.

Neither party will fix deficit spending. Nor will the Fed.

And it will get worse in the next recession. Unrestrained fiscal stimulus contributed to the mess we are in, and nothing suggests a policy change no matter who wins the election.

In the past two decades, the Fed did have some favorable global factors that held down inflation. Those factors are gone. I will discuss the differences in my next segment.

Meanwhile, please consider my question Dear Jerome Powell, Is Everything Under Control?

Authored by Tom Ozimek via The Epoch Times (emphasis ours),

Texas Gov. Greg Abbott has pardoned former U.S. Army Sgt. Daniel Perry, who was convicted of murder and sentenced to 25 years in prison for shooting an armed Black Lives Matter (BLM) protester who wielded an AK-47.

Mr. Abbott issued a proclamation on May 16 indicating that Mr. Perry has been granted a full pardon and restoration of full civil rights of citizenship, while taking aim at Travis County District Attorney Jose Garza for allegedly directing the lead investigator to withhold exculpatory evidence and demonstrating “unethical and biased misuse” of his office in prosecuting Mr. Perry.

“Texas has one of the strongest ‘Stand Your Ground’ laws of self-defense that cannot be nullified by a jury or a progressive District Attorney,” Mr. Abbott said in a statement announcing the pardon. “I thank the Board for its thorough investigation, and I approve their pardon recommendation.”

Earlier in the day, the Texas Board of Pardons and Paroles issued a pardon recommendation to the governor’s office, indicating in a statement that it had “delved into the intricacies” of Mr. Perry’s case, including reviewing police reports, court records, witness statements, and interviews with people linked to the case.

“The Board voted unanimously to recommend a full pardon and restoration of firearm rights,” the board said in the statement.

Mr. Garza’s office told The Epoch Times in an emailed statement that board’s decision and the governor’s pardon amount to a “mockery of our legal system.”

“Their actions are contrary to the law and demonstrate that there are two classes of people in this state where some lives matter and some lives do not,” he said.

More Details

Mr. Perry was convicted on April 7, 2023, on murder charges for killing Garrett Foster on July 25, 2020, during a BLM protest in Austin, Texas.

On the night of the shooting, Mr. Perry was working as a ride-share driver and had turned onto a street where Mr. Foster and dozens of other protesters were marching. After Mr. Foster approached Mr. Perry’s car carrying an AK-47 rifle and began to raise the rifle toward Mr. Perry, the former Army sergeant shot Mr. Foster, his attorneys said in his defense.

Mr. Perry claimed self-defense, but prosecutors claimed he had maliciously driven into a crowd of protesters and that Mr. Foster had the right to approach him and investigate.

Doug O’Connell, Mr. Perry’s attorney, said in a statement posted on social media that his client is grateful for the pardon and wishes “this tragic event never happened and wishes he never had to defend himself against Mr. Foster’s unlawful actions.”

“He is thrilled and elated to be free,” Mr. O’Connell wrote, while criticizing the “courtroom travesty” that put him behind bars for what would have been over two decades.

Mr. Perry served 372 days of his sentence before being freed, Mr. O’Connell said, while blaming Mr. Garza for tampering with witnesses during the case.

Mr. Garza told The Epoch Times that the pardon sends a message to those Travis County community members who served on the grand jury that their service is meaningless.

“To the family and friends of Garrett Foster, and to the people of Travis County, we will not stop fighting for justice,” Mr. Garza said.

Background

Mr. Perry, who was working as an Uber driver at the time of the shooting, traveled to Austin in July 2020 for work, according to a statement he provided through his attorneys.

After dropping a client off, Mr. Perry drove his vehicle onto Congress Avenue and encountered the protest, which was blocking the road. His attorney said that Mr. Perry was unaware of the demonstration before encountering the group.

“When Sgt. Perry turned on the Congress Avenue, several people started beating on his vehicle,” the statement said. “An individual carrying an assault rifle, now known to be Garrett Foster, quickly approached the car and then motioned with the assault rifle for Mr. Perry to lower his window.”

Mr. Perry complied with the request, initially believing that Mr. Foster was with law enforcement.

“It has now been confirmed by several witnesses that this individual with the assault rifle then began to raise the assault rifle toward Sgt. Perry,” his lawyer said in the statement. “It was only then that Sgt. Perry, who carried a handgun in his car for his own protection while driving strangers in the ride share program, fired on the person to protect his own life.”

After Mr. Perry shot Mr. Foster, another person in the crowd began firing on Mr. Perry’s vehicle, prompting him to speed away and, after reaching a safe location, to call the police.

Austin Police Chief Brian Manley told reporters after the shooting that people on the scene gave conflicting accounts of what happened, though he acknowledged that Mr. Foster may have pointed his gun at Mr. Perry.

Prosecutors alleged that Mr. Perry had provoked the shooting by driving into the crowd of protesters.

His attorneys argued that prosecutors withheld key evidence from the jury that suggested Mr. Foster was the aggressor. For instance, his attorneys sought to introduce evidence of three incidents that they said showed Mr. Foster had previously tried to intimidate cars on public streets.

Mr. Perry’s lawyers also repeatedly tried to introduce into evidence a video recording of Mr. Foster, taken by a protester witness on the morning of July 25, 2020. The video showed that when Mr. Foster was asked if he felt like he’d need to use his AK-47, he said: “Na. I think the uh—I mean if I use it against the cops, I’m dead. I think all the people that hate us, and you know, wanna say [expletive] to us are too big of a [expletive] to stop and actually do anything about it.”

According to Mr. Perry’s attorneys, the evidence showed that Mr. Foster and fellow protesters “routinely harassed vehicles that attempted to interfere with their efforts to ’take the streets.’”

Texas law indicates that a person is justified in using force against someone when they “reasonably” believe it’s necessary to protect them against another’s use of unlawful force.

The Board of Pardons and Paroles said in its May 16 statement that, after a “thorough review of the amassed information,” it concluded that Mr. Perry had acted lawfully and recommended he be pardoned.

Mimi Nguyen-Ly and Zachary Stieber contributed to this report. This article has been updated with comments from Mr. Garza’s office.