Op. Freedom PLUS: The PLUS is... Go Real Fast

Operation Freedom is DOA already after Iran shot a couple missiles across the bows of a couple US Navy vessels trying to pass thru the Strait of Hormuz. This is leading to folks claiming TrumpyBear has been humiliated by the Iranians and I think maybe we shouldn't be megaphoning that narrative as it seems like Mossad propaganda designed to shame Trump into bombing Iran some more. Anyway, here's some news this morning. Enjoy.

Iran 14 point plan https://www.aljazeera.com/news/2026/5/3/whats-irans-14-point-proposal-to-end-the-war-and-will-trump-accept-it 

Trump's horrible numbers https://www.reuters.com/world/us/trump-approval-falls-lowest-his-term-over-prices-epstein-files-reutersipsos-poll-2025-11-18/ 

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The Epstein Suicide Note Story is Just Plain Stupid... and other news

The Epstein Suicide Note Story is Just Plain Stupid... and other news 

NYT article https://nomadiceveryman.blogspot.com/2026/05/jeffrey-epsteins-possible-suicide-note.html 

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Jeffrey Epstein’s Possible Suicide Note Hidden From Public View

from the New York Times

A suicide note purportedly written by Jeffrey Epstein in a Manhattan jail has been kept secret for nearly seven years, locked up in a New York courthouse.

A cellmate said he discovered the note in July 2019, after Mr. Epstein was found unresponsive with a strip of cloth around his neck. Mr. Epstein survived that incident but weeks later was found dead in the jail.

The note was eventually sealed by a federal judge as part of the cellmate’s own criminal case, according to documents and interviews. That means investigators scrutinizing Mr. Epstein’s high-profile death lacked what could have been a key piece of evidence.

On Thursday, The New York Times petitioned the judge to unseal the note, which said it was “time to say goodbye,” the cellmate, Nicholas Tartaglione, recalled. While Mr. Tartaglione mentioned the note on a podcast last year, the scrawled message has remained hidden from public view, even at a time of unprecedented transparency around the government’s investigations into Mr. Epstein. Since December, the Justice Department has released millions of pages of documents related to the sexual predator.

The Times has not seen the note and could not find it in the Epstein files. A Justice Department spokeswoman said the agency had not seen it.

Trump likens American forces seizing Iranian ships to pirates

(If he hadn't been born to the father he was, this man wouldn't have risen to a position higher than assistant manager of a Burger King and he wouldn't have kept that job for long because he would have been caught stealing out of the cash drawer. He's fucking garbage. He's a garbage human being and his cult still worship him like Jesus. I guess they think Jesus was a garbage human being as well.) 

from RT

US President Donald Trump has joked that American forces are behaving like pirates as he boasted about the capture of tankers and cargo ships attempting to breach the blockade of Iranian ports.

Oil prices surged past $120 a barrel this week for the first time since 2022, while Trump’s approval rating fell to 34%, a record low in Reuters/Ipsos polling.

Speaking at the Forum Club of the Palm Beaches dinner in Florida on Friday, Trump recalled how a destroyer fired at the Iranian-flagged cargo vessel Touska near the Strait of Hormuz on April 19 before it was boarded by US Marines.

“We took over the ship. We took over the cargo, took over the oil. It’s a very profitable business. Who would have thought we were doing that? We’re like pirates. We’re sort of like pirates,” Trump said, prompting laughter in the audience...

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UK’s Starmer eyes banning some pro-Palestine protests

from al Jazeera

British Prime Minister Keir Starmer says some pro-Palestine marches could be banned and people who use the phrase “globalise the Intifada” could be prosecuted.

In an interview broadcast by the BBC on Saturday, Starmer advocated for tighter language restrictions at pro-Palestine marches, adding that in some cases, rallies could be prohibited altogether.

“I’m a big defender of freedom of expression, peaceful protests,” he told the BBC. “But when there are chants like ‘globalise the Intifada’, that’s completely off limits.”

“Clearly, there should be tougher action in relation to that,” he added.

Discussions had been taking place with the police for some time about what further action could be taken, he added. Asked whether he sought to completely bar some rallies, Starmer said he thought that would be appropriate in some cases...

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Musk v. Altman week 1: Elon Musk says he was duped, warns AI could kill us all, and admits that xAI distills OpenAI’s models

from MIT Review

In the first week of the landmark trial between Elon Musk and OpenAI, Musk took the stand in a crisp black suit and tie and argued that OpenAI CEO Sam Altman and president Greg Brockman had deceived him into bankrolling the company. Along the way, he warned that AI could destroy us all and sat through revelations that he had poached OpenAI employees for his own companies. He even confessed, to some audible gasps in the courtroom, that his own AI company, xAI, which makes the chatbot Grok, uses OpenAI’s models to train its own. 

The federal courthouse in Oakland, California, was packed with armies of lawyers carrying boxes of exhibits, journalists typing away at their laptops, and a handful of concerned OpenAI employees. Outside, protesters lined the streets, carrying signs urging people to quit ChatGPT, boycott Tesla, or both. Musk looked calm and comfortable, slipping in the occasional quip in his distinct South African accent. But he also was full of remorse...

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White House Claims Ceasefire Resets War Powers Act Deadline

from AntiWar

A senior White House official claimed that President Donald Trump does not need Congressional approval to continue the war against Iran because the ongoing ceasefire negates the deadline imposed by the War Powers Act. 

On Thursday, a US official told News Nation that “for War Powers Resolution purposes,” the war against Iran had ended. The War Powers Act was passed after the Vietnam War and was intended to strengthen Congressional oversight over war. 

Additionally, the War Powers Act is a law and does not alter the Constitutional limits on Presidential war powers. The Constitution grants Congress the exclusive power to declare war. 

However, the law has been reinterpreted to allow a President to wage war for 60 days without seeking Congressional approval. The 60-day deadline for the war in Iran expired on Friday, and if Trump wants to restart the war, he needs Congress to pass a Declaration of War or Authorization for Use of Military Force. 

The administration appears to be attempting to use the ceasefire, which began three weeks ago, to sidestep the War Powers Act. “We are in a ceasefire right now, which [in] our understanding means the 60-day clock pauses, or stops,” Hegseth told Sen Tim Kaine during a Senate Armed Services Committee hearing...

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‘A Moment of Reckoning’: 4,000+ May Day Demonstrations Across US

from Common Dreams 

In thousands of locations across the United States, workers and students are taking off from work and school and swearing off shopping on Friday as part of a national May Day protest.

May Day Strong, a coalition of activist groups and unions organizing the events, said more than 4,000 actions, from marches to pickets to displays of peaceful civil disobedience, were underway. 

It is yet another nationwide display of coordinated resistance to the Trump administration’s agenda, including its war in Iran and its use of US Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) to attack immigrant communities, issues that were at the forefront of March’s “No Kings” protests.

Six young protesters with the Sunrise Movement were taken into custody after blocking a bridge in Minneapolis in what they said was an act of “nonviolent noncooperation” to “stand up to the war in Iran and against ICE terrorizing our neighbors and our cities.”

Dozens more Sunrise protesters in Portland held a sit-in in the lobby of a Hilton hotel that was housing top officials with the Department of Homeland Security, leading to eight arrests...

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I Stand With Candace Owens in her SLAPP Lawsuit

 I Stand With Candace Owens in her SLAPP Lawsuit

Hidden costs of US Iran war push total far beyond $25bn Pentagon claim

from al Mayadeen English

The Pentagon’s declared $25 billion cost of the war on Iran is likely a significant understatement of the war's true financial burden, Bloomberg reported, citing analysts. Senior US defense officials disclosed the figure during testimony at a contentious congressional hearing on Wednesday, outlining the total cost incurred so far.

Calculations by Bloomberg, based on Pentagon data, suggest that the cost of certain munitions, destroyed equipment, and operational expenses alone amounts to around $14 billion. This includes $8 billion for munitions, $5 billion to replace lost aircraft and damaged equipment, and approximately $1 billion in operational costs for deploying two aircraft carriers and 16 destroyers over 39 days of near-continuous strikes.

The estimate does not account for the cost of repairing damaged facilities across the region, such as the US Navy’s Fifth Fleet headquarters in Bahrain, which has been repeatedly targeted in Iranian attacks. It also excludes the operational costs of all ships and aircraft involved in the military buildup prior to February 28, as well as those currently engaged in the ongoing blockade...

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