“Libyan Gov’t Decries Fake News about Taking 1 mn. Palestinian Refugees: ‘Committed to the Palestinian Cause’”

Juan Cole 05/17/2025

Ann Arbor (Informed Comment) – Abu Dhabi-based Erem News reports that the Prime Minister of Libya’s internationally recognized Government of National Unity (GNU) in Tripoli, Abdul Hamid al-Dbeibeh, has vehemently denied the report in the “American Thinker” by what Libya called the “notorious conspiracy theorist” Jerome Corsi that the Trump administration is negotiating with the Libyan government to take one million Palestinians. It is an absurd allegation on the face of it. Libyans have long been extremely pro-Palestinian and any leader that cooperated with the extremist government of Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu in ethnically cleansing so many Palestinians from …

Read More Here:  https://www.juancole.com/2025/05/scurrilous-palestinian-committed.html

Sunday political cartoons / memes / news items. I think I held this batch to the right size.

I was reading up on the history of diphtheria and ran across this interesting fact.

Mueller, She Wrote (@muellershewrote.com) 2025-05-16T06:02:11.757Z

He’s never visited a mosque in the country where he’s president but he’s happy to do it in a country where he can make money

Mehdi Hasan (@mehdirhasan.bsky.social) 2025-05-16T11:52:41.101Z

In the days of yore, this would end a political career. A DNI firing intel officials who reported something in contrast to a president trying to abuse emergency powers. We're the frogs and the water is at a rolling boil, folks.

Mueller, She Wrote (@muellershewrote.com) 2025-05-16T01:09:09.011Z

The Statue of Liberty was a gift to the United States, not an individual. That’s why it is now a public monument and not sitting in Grover Cleveland’s presidential library (not sure if he even has one)

Asha Rangappa (@asharangappa.bsky.social) 2025-05-15T16:27:59.795Z

Among the victims of the Jabalia massacre were a group of orphaned children.They had gathered to receive financial aid from a charity when they were targeted.All the orphans were martyred, along with the charity’s staff, now raising their complaint of betrayal to their Creator.

Mona Hijazi 🇵🇸🫒In Gaza (@monahijazi.bsky.social) 2025-05-16T09:05:43.156Z

Seems to me that if there’s a senile guy doing nothing in particular the usual way and a senile guy setting everything on fire, the fire guy is the one who should be the focus of media inquiry

86 47 Hat (@kenwhite.bsky.social) 2025-05-15T18:42:24.254Z

This can’t be true because Trump already declared victory over the Houthis & said he wiped them out already after a month of missile attacks that cost us 6 Reaper drones and 2 fighter jets, and the handful of remaining Houthis have surrendered because they are afraid of him.

Ron Filipkowski (@ronfilipkowski.bsky.social) 2025-05-16T01:51:30.987Z

How about fixing the air traffic control system?

MeidasTouch (@meidastouch.com) 2025-05-16T11:03:43.946Z

When that second intelligence memo came out that said Tren de Aragua was not a proxy for the Venezuelan government, I was certain someone was going to lose their job. Sure enough.

Mueller, She Wrote (@muellershewrote.com) 2025-05-15T20:01:07.321Z

Let me get this straight. While this Admin is pushing to take $6 a day away from hungry kids on SNAP to root out "wasteful spending” they see no issue spending over a billion of your hard-earned tax dollars to replace Air Force One with a Qatari jet (the President got for free)??

Rep. Angie Craig (@repangiecraig.bsky.social) 2025-05-15T14:10:11.073Z

The science is clear, there is no single, physiological or biological marker that allows for the simple categorisation of people as male or female.This means that you can’t use chromosomes alone, you can’t use genitalia, you can’t use testosterone levels to divide people into male or female.

Kirsti Miller (@kirstimiller30.bsky.social) 2025-05-16T13:40:50.501Z

They're going to profile anyone gender nonconforming to push them out of the military. Too feminine as a man? You're out. Too butch as a woman? You're out. This will be a de facto ban on queer people as well.

Alejandra Caraballo (@esqueer.net) 2025-05-15T22:47:17.087Z

 

 

 

 

Israeli strikes across Gaza kill dozens and force a main hospital to close, health officials say

https://apnews.com/article/mideast-wars-israel-gaza-hamas-hostages-18-05-2025-f325044576f1ac31e6083622242c9990
Israeli strikes across Gaza kill dozens and force a main hospital to close, health officials say

Best Wishes and Hugs,
Scottie

I Keep On Learning

They are doing it. Gross, corrupt, and hateful

WH Official Ordered Redo Of Venezuelan Gang Story

Kent, a twice-failed House candidate and self-professed fan of the Proud Boys, last appeared here when he declared that he would be keeping a $8600 campaign donation from a Capitol rioter then-facing felony assault charges. We first heard from Kent in 2022 when he gave an interview to a white nationalist Nazi podcaster.

New from Julian Barnes, Maggie Haberman and me:Trump Appointee Pressed Analyst to Redo Intelligence on Venezuelan GangThe move followed a disclosure that intelligence agencies disagree with a key factual claim Trump made to invoke a wartime deportation law.www.nytimes.com/2025/05/16/u…

Charlie Savage (@charliesavage.bsky.social) 2025-05-16T22:15:47.077Z

Moody’s Downgrades Credit Rating Of United States

Breaking news: The US has been stripped of its top-notch triple-a credit rating by Moody’s on concerns about rising levels of government debt http://www.ft.com/content/e456…

Financial Times (@financialtimes.com) 2025-05-16T21:04:22.468Z

 

Fox Host Agrees With Oklahoma Schools Chief That Students Should Be Taught 2020 Election Was Stolen

Christian Nationalist Pastors To Open DC Church To Help The Trump Administration “Go After Sodomy” [VIDEO]

“And they’re like, ‘Yeah, yeah. Look, we’re doing it.’ But all the sodomites are still there and we’re not going to talk about that. And I need a guy there, I need a minister there who’s gonna say, ‘Oh, but we are. Obergefell is next, we’re coming for that,’ so that you calibrate the Christians in DC by the word of God and not by whatever the present administration can tolerate.

“We’re gonna come for feminism. We’re going to go after sodomy. Those are the sins in that town. Those are sins that are acceptable among both parties in that town. And we want to plant that flag and say the Bible has something to say about this.” – Christian nationalist pastor Joe Rigney.

 

Trump Threatens “Dried Out Prune” Springsteen: He Better “Keep His Mouth Shut, Just An Obnoxious Jerk”

Trump: Taylor Swift Is “No Longer Hot” Because Of Me

Felon Threatens SCOTUS Justices In Birthright Rant

USAID Leaves 66,000 Metric Tons Of Food Relief To Rot

Food rations that could supply 3.5 million people for a month are mouldering in warehouses around the world because of U.S. aid cuts and risk becoming unusable, according to five people familiar with the situation. The food stocks have been stuck inside four U.S. government warehouses since the Trump administration’s decision in January to cut global aid programmes.

 

Trump Is Selling “VIP Access” To Birthday Parade

Those who give to America250, a committee created to support what Trump envisions as a large national celebration next year for America’s 250th birthday, will be given special access to three events, according to a pitch shared with donors. Those include a military parade Trump is planning on his birthday, a “military readiness” event he is leading at Fort Bragg military base with thousands of troops and an Independence Day celebration in Washington, the people said.

https://x.com/jdawsey1/status/1923335215700758761

 

FEMA Head: We Don’t Have A Hurricane Season Plan

On his first day on the job, Richardson threatened staffers, telling them “I’ll run right over you” if they object to his orders.

Duffy: FAA Is Scrounging Replacement Parts On eBay

Yesterday Duffy also posted a video about moving a painting of Jesus “out of the basement” at the Merchant Marine Academy.

https://x.com/MacFarlaneNews/status/1923120841413521425

 

Kid Rock: Birth Rate Is Low Due To “Ugly Ass Broke Crazy Deranged TDS Liberal Women” And Gay Men

He continued, “I mean, you look at these rallies, it’s like a bunch of women that no guy wants to sleep with and a bunch of dudes that want to sleep with each other.”

You’ll note that Watters did not ask Kid Rock about sending his undocumented kitchen staff home to evade arrest by ICE.

Trump Admin Fires 600 Voice Of America Employees And Puts Organization’s DC Headquarters Up For Sale

Trump Administration Fires Hundreds of Voice of America Employees – The New York Times http://www.nytimes.com/2025/05/15/u…

Timothy McBride (@mcbridetd.bsky.social) 2025-05-16T06:24:06.074Z

ICE Barbie And “Duck Dynasty” Producer Plot Reality Show In Which Migrants Compete For US Citizenship

 

 

 

 

Trump Claims Hitler Gave “Speech At The Eiffel Tower”

https://x.com/atrupar/status/1923053942759358935

This is as close as Hitler got to the Tower. He couldn’t go up it because the French had cut the elevator cables.

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Some clips from TizzyEnt

Again their doing stuff that hurts others

 

 

DOJ Claims Prominent Law Firm Is National Security Threat For Working With LGBTQ Rights Group GLAD

 

 

 

 

Pentagon Has Spent $21M On Migrant Flights To Gitmo

Texas House Passes Anti-Trans “Biological Truth” Bill

OH Cultist Films Himself Burning LGBTQ Library Books

Trump Defense Lawyer Named Librarian Of Congress

Blanche last appeared here when he sanctioned the American Bar Association because its lawyers have failed to show suitable obedience to Glorious Leader.

DHS Terminates Protected Status Of Afghan Refugees

 

White South African “Refugees” Arrive At DC Airport

But Trump claimed Monday that a genocide was taking place in South Africa. “Farmers are being killed,” the president said. “They happen to be White.

But White farmers are being brutally killed and their land is being confiscated in South Africa.”

Trump has imported a new Mickey Mouse from South Africa.

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BTO and Pork Chops

Freak Off Crypto by Clay Jones

How much Trump Crypto to keep Diddy out of prison? Read on Substack

I was reading some of my colleagues’ work this morning at GoComics, and I came across a cartoon by Gary Varvel defending Trump’s bribes (also, Gary, plane tires don’t have treads). An idiot in the comments section wrote, “So they gave him a bribe and then they gave him trillions of investments? I don’t think you know how bribes work.” The idiot doesn’t know how bribes work… or facts.

None of these three bribing nations, Qatar, the United Arab Emirates, or Saudi Arabia, is investing trillions, which is a lie mentioned in the cartoon. A good way to tell if a cartoonist is instead a propagandist is when he/she rely on Trump for their research.

A lot of the “deals” Trump announced were actually made by President Joe Biden, while the rest aren’t binding, and won’t take effect until Trump is “supposed” to leave office, like that 747, Bribe Force One, won’t be ready until then either.

By the way, Qatar had been trying to sell that plane with no takers for over five years. Grifting, er, I mean gifting it to Trump will save them millions in storage fees. The entire world is moving away from that type of jet, including Qatar, which no longer includes it in its fleet of aircraft. This jet will now cost us more than its asking price to refit it.

This is like giving a dog a pork chop to make it like you, but in this case, the pork chop is a 747 jet. Also, the Qataris could have just given Donald Trump a pork chop.

What these nations really want from Trump is the arms deals and being legitimized by an American president (sic). It’s true they like Trump more than they liked President Biden or President Obama. The Crown Prince, who had Jamal Khashoggi murdered, rarely greets visitors when they arrive at the airport. He didn’t greet Biden at the airport, but he met Trump. Naturally, corrupt fascists governing monarchies without elections, who are also murderers, would love Trump. It’s like being loved by mobsters, Jason Vorhees, Jeffrey Epstein, and Roger Stone.

They also love Trump because they got a sucker who is easy to play.

Trump has been using his entire second regime to enrich himself. He’s fired the people who root out corruption in government, and then he got busy.

Our Attorney General, Pam Bondi, ruled that accepting Qatar’s gift of a jet doesn’t violate the Emoluments Clause, but she took a bribe from Trump years ago to stop investigating Trump University in Florida, and she used to be a lobbyist for…wait for it…Qatar.

By accepting the gift, Trump announced to the rest of the world that he’s open for business, and corruption is his business. If you thought his first regime was corrupt, as Bachman-Turner Overdrive would say, you ain’t seen nothing yet, B-B-B-B-B-B-B-B-Baby.

In the first regime, Trump and the Trump Organization said it wouldn’t create “new” business with foreign nations. In Trump 2.0, they announced that they WILL take in new business from foreign nations, and they just secured a bunch of golf resorts and other real estate deals in the three nations Trump visited this week, Qatar, Saudi Arabia, and the United Arab Emirates.

The Trump Org. is now involved in six Middle Eastern real estate projects sponsored by Dar Global, the international subsidiary of a Saudi-based firm with close ties to the Saudi royal family. It gets worse.

Don Sniffy Jr. and his buddies have created a new private club in Washington, DC that costs $500,000 to join. It’s called the Executive Club. The purpose of the club is to sell access to Trump and officials in the regime. Remember when Republicans howled about Hunter Biden selling access to his father, and felt the need to waste a lot of our money investigating it? There’s no investigation needed here because they’re doing it out in the open.

And then there’s $Trump Crypto.

Trump used to hate crypto and has posted in the past, “I am not a fan of Bitcoin and other Cryptocurrencies, which are not money, and whose value is highly volatile and based on thin air.”

He also said, “Unregulated Crypto Assets can facilitate unlawful behavior, including drug trade and other illegal activity.”

And he said that bitcoin “just seems like a scam,” and it’s a “disaster waiting to happen,” and “I think they should regulate them very, very high.”

It must be true that it’s a scam that can facilitate unlawful behavior because now, Trump LOVES crypto and has created his own. In fact, $Trump Crypto was created in January, three days before he was inaugurated, and promised to make the United States “the crypto capital of the planet.” And then the crypto industry donated $18 million to his inauguration, where donations go to disappear…which is much like how crypto works.

Foreigners are jumping to donate to $Trump, including a tiny TikTok e-commerce company with ties to the Chinese government that has zero revenue, yet found the funds to buy $300 million of $Trump Crypto, just when Trump is delaying the shutdown of TikTok in America. Now we know why the delay was instituted. Maybe that’s why he’s delaying tariffs on China for 90 days. There are 90s days to bribe Trump not to place 145 percent tariffs on China.

Follow the money. Follow the shell game.

If you need further proof that Trump is taking bribes, then listen to this: If you buy enough of $TRUMP Criminal, oops… $Trump Crypto to become one of its top 220 investors, then you’ll get to attend an “intimate private” dinner with him later this month. If you buy enough to become one of the top 25, you will win a “VIP White House Tour.” And if you give him a plane, you’ll get to spend the night with Trump in the Lincoln Bedroom, and with guaranteed spooning time.

Trump is not even hiding that he’s selling access and using the White House to grift.

According to Bloomberg, $Trump Criminal, I mean Crypto, is nearing the value of $1 billion. Did you know the value of the Trump family has increased by nearly $4 billion since January? At that rate, their value will be $32 billion by the time Trump 2.0 is “supposed” to end. Also, at this rate, by the time 2029 gets here, Trump will have eight 747s.

And finally, the Justice Department disbanded a division dedicated to investigating cryptocurrency crimes, declared that meme coins are no longer subject to regulatory oversight, and paused a fraud case against a top crypto mogul who pumped $75 million into $Trump Criminal…oops, I mean Trump Crypto.

Now we know how Diddy can beat the rap, and getting a pardon from Trump is not out of the question. According to Rolling Stone, Diddy’s people are talking to Trump’s people.

Trump has attended Diddy’s parties, which are often called “freak offs.” Tiffany Trump has attended the “freak offs.” Trump and Diddy have both said they like each other. They’ve both been prosecuted in cases involving sex or sex abuse. They were both tried in Manhattan. They have a lot in common. They’re both criminals because Trump stole classified documents and Diddy stole Every Breath You Take by the Police.

How much $Trump Criminal can Diddy buy? Oops.

I meant $Trump Crypto.

Creative note: One of my concerns with this cartoon is that it may be too subtle. Well, too subtle for MAGAts maybe.
The bribe in the cartoon was originally a 747, but I realized I hadn’t hit the $Trump Crypto bribes yet. Oops.

I meant $Trump Criminal.

Music note: I listened to some tunes today that have been remastered, and they sounded much better before the remastering. Yo, remastering MoFos. Some of us like to hear the bass.

I did not listen to Diddy.

Drawn in 30 seconds: (snip-go see it)

“Little Yellow Chest”

Busy Day in Peace & Justice History on 5/17, Including Outrage & Rebellion in Seattle, a Wedding in MA, & a SCOTUS Decision Desegregating Public Schools; So Much More-

May 17, 1919
The Women’s International League for Peace and Freedom (WILPF) was formally established in Zurich, Switzerland.
May 17, 1954
In a major civil rights victory, the U.S. Supreme Court handed down a unanimous decision in Brown v. Board of Education, ruling “separate but equal” public education to be unconstitutional under the 14th Amendment, which guarantees equal treatment under the law.
The historic decision, bringing an end to federal tolerance of racial segregation, specifically dealt with Linda Brown, a young African American girl denied admission to her local elementary school in Topeka, Kansas, because of the color of her skin.

Read more and more
 
Above: Nettie Hunt and her daughter Nickie on the steps of the U.S. Supreme Court, 1954.
   
George E. C. Hayes, Thurgood Marshall and James M. Nabrit (left to right), the successful legal team, celebrate the Brown decision. . .
three years later . . .
May 17, 1957
Martin Luther King, Jr. led 30,00 on a Prayer Pilgrimage to Washington, D.C. to mark the third anniversary of Brown vs. Board of Education decision in which the Supreme Court declared racial segregation in education unconstitutional.
May 17, 1968
A group of anti-war activists who came to be known as the “Catonsville Nine,” including Philip and Daniel Berrigan, broke into the Catonsville, Maryland, draft board center and burned over 600 draft files.

The Catonsville Nine in a picture taken in the police station minutes after the action.
From left to right (standing) George Mische, Philip Berrigan, Daniel Berrigan, Tom Lewis. From left to right (seated) David Darst, Mary Moylan, John Hogan, Marjorie Melville, Tom Melville.  photo Jean Walsh
Read more about the Catonsville Nine 
May 17, 1970
 
100 protesters staged a silent “die-in” at Fifth Avenue and Pine Street in downtown Seattle to protest shipment through their city of Army nerve gas being transported from Okinawa, Japan, to the Umatilla Army Depot in eastern Oregon.
Outrage and Rebellion 
May 17, 1973
In Washington, D.C., the Senate Select Committee on Presidential Campaign Activities, headed by Senator Sam Ervin of North Carolina, began televised hearings on the escalating Watergate affair. One week later, Harvard Law Professor Archibald Cox was sworn in as Watergate special prosecutor.
Flashback: On June 17, 1972, five men were arrested for breaking into the Democratic National Committee headquarters in the Watergate complex in Washington, D.C. with the intent to set up wiretaps. One of the suspects, James W. McCord, Jr., was revealed to be the salaried security coordinator for President Richard Nixon’s reelection committee.
May 17, 2004

Marcia Kadish, 56, and Tanya McCloskey, 52, of Malden, Massachusetts, were married at Cambridge City Hall in Massachusetts, becoming the first legally married same-sex partners in the United States. Over the course of the day, 77 other such couples tied the knot across the state, and hundreds more applied for marriage licenses.
The day was characterized by much celebration and only a few of the expected protests materialized.
Read more 

https://www.peacebuttons.info/E-News/peacehistorymay.htm#may17