Flotsam and Jetsam - Iran Deal in the Wings? and Another White House Shooter

There are two main story vying for our attention. First, the administration appears to be on the cusp of a deal with Iran to stop the conflict. At this point details are scarce, but it's not really a deal if it doesn't stop Iran's nuclear weapons program and fully open the Strait of Hormuz. Dave Strom at Hat Hair, Iran Deal? Reports Say 'Yes'. Nick Sortor @nicksortor, " BREAKING: President Trump CONFIRMS a peace deal between the US and Iran has been “largely negotiated,” and could be finalized imminently An announcement could be coming VERY soon. Keep pushing for peace, 47 “I am in the Oval Office at the White House where we just had a very good call with President Mohammed bin Salman Al Saud, of Saudi Arabia, Mohammed bin Zayed Al Nahyan, of The United Arab Emirates, Emir Tamim bin Hamad bin Khalifa Al Thani, Prime Minister Mohammed bin Abdulrahman bin Jassim bin Jaber Al Thani, and Minister Ali al-Thawadi, of Qatar, Field Marshal Syed Asim Munir Ahmed Shah, of Pakistan, President Recep Tayyip Erdoğan, of Türkiye, President Abdel Fattah El-Sisi, of Egypt, King Abdullah II, of Jordan, and King Hamad bin Isa Al Khalifa, of Bahrain, concerning the Islamic Republic of Iran, and all things related to a Memorandum of Understanding pertaining to PEACE. An Agreement has been largely negotiated, subject to finalization between the United States of America, the Islamic Republic of Iran, and the various other Countries, as listed. Separately, I had a call with Prime Minister Bibi Netanyahu, of Israel, which, likewise, went very well. Final aspects and details of the Deal are currently being discussed, and will be announced shortly. In addition to many other elements of the Agreement, the Strait of Hormuz will be opened. Thank you for your attention to this matter! President DONALD J. TRUMP”" Joe Chalfant at TownHall, Trump Announces Peace Deal With Iran Is Nearing Completion. Sundance at CTH, Following Phone Call with Arab Allies, Turkey and Pakistan, President Trump Notes Memorandum of Understanding with Iran to Be Announced Shortly and Secretary Marco Rubio Notes “There May Be News Later Today” on Iran, Speaking from India. Althouse doesn't buy it until the NYT reports it, "Secretary of State Marco Rubio said earlier that President Trump might deliver positive news about negotiations over the U.S.-Israeli war against Iran 'a little bit later today.'" ""He added that the world could learn 'over the next few hours' about progress on resolving the shipping crisis in the Strait of Hormuz and also about a 'process' on other major issues, including Iran’s nuclear program. Rubio, speaking at a news conference with his Indian counterpart in Delhi, said that 'significant progress, although not final progress,' had been made in negotiations." The NYT reported 55 minutes ago." I confess to being curious about the details, and worry about the enforcement. 

It's an absurd contention that world power/influence can be gotten via asymmetric tactics...if true then every country would resort to extortion, piracy and terrorism

The only real power Iran has achieved has been via TDS-afflicted media which keeps repeating this propaganda https://t.co/RlbAdXQGEz pic.twitter.com/8wV9BF5Eor

— Gummi (@gummibear737) May 22, 2026

The second major story is that a lone gunman approached a security post near the White House, pulled a gun and fired several shots, upon which time he was shot by the Secret Service and later died. A bystander was also hit and critically wounded. The shooter was a "known" kook, with repeated previous run ins with the Secret Service. I hesitate to call it an assassination attempt; there was simply no way the shooter was going to get anywhere near the President, but I don't doubt that in his mind that's what was going to happen. Driscoll at Insty, DEVELOPING: Gunshots heard near White House. “The incident reportedly happened near 17th Street and Pennsylvania Avenue, which is the intersection just northwest of the White House.” Collin Rugg @CollinRugg, "BREAKING: About 30 shots fired outside the White House. Secret Service reportedly rushed the press who were on the north lawn into the press briefing room. ABC reporter Selina Wang was in the middle of filming when the shots rang out." Meridith McGraw @meridithmcgraw, "Statement from @SecretService on the shooting near the White House, the gunman has died and a bystander injured: “Shortly after 6:00 p.m. Saturday, an individual approached a Secret Service checkpoint in the area of 17th Street and Pennsylvania Avenue NW. A preliminary investigation indicates that as the individual approached, he removed a weapon from his bag and began firing at posted officers. Secret Service police officers returned fire, striking the suspect, who was transported to an area hospital, where he later died. During the shooting, a bystander was also struck by gunfire. It remains unclear whether the bystander was struck by the suspect’s initial gunfire or during the subsequent exchange of gunfire. No injuries were sustained by Secret Service personnel. The President was at the White House during the incident but was not impacted. The incident remains under investigation.”" At NYPo, Gunman who believed he was Jesus Christ opened fire on White House checkpoint, neutralized by Secret Service. Beege Welborn at Hat Hair, Shots Fired at 17th and Pennsylvania Ave - Secret Service Take Gunman Down UPDATES. Sundance, More Shots Fired Near White House Perimeter. Nick Arama at RedState, More Details on Shooting Outside White House, Including Alleged Shooter ID. "Multiple sources confirmed to Fox News Digital the suspect accused of opening fire near the White House Saturday afternoon has been identified as Nasire Best, 21, of Maryland. [...} He allegedly had prior encounters with the Secret Service and a history of mental health issues, sources said. Best was detained by Secret Service on June 26, 2025, for flagging down agents and making threats, and again on July 10, 2025, for entering a restricted area, Fox News has learned." Ben Smith at LI, White House Gunman Identified, Was Known to Secret Service, "A court issued an order barring him from the area. He violated it and kept coming back. The Secret Service kept finding him loitering around the White House." At Commentary, The Assassination Fan Base. "Once horrifying, the targeted murder of prominent people now comes with a built-in subculture and cheering section." This was probably written before the event. unseen1 @unseen1_unseen, "The people on the edge of sanity are the hardest hit by what the media and dems are doing." Quote New York Post @nypost "Gunman who believed he was Jesus Christ opened fire on White House checkpoint, neutralized by Secret Service https://trib.al/X3d6cas"

NYPo, Ghoulish Luigi Mangione superfan exposed as daughter of senior healthcare exec at CVS Health "Lena Weissbrot, a member of the twisted trio hopelessly devoted to the accused assassin of UnitedHealthcare CEO Brian Thompson, is the daughter of Reina Natero, who oversees prescription drug insurance coverage rules at CVS Health, according to a review of public records and Natero’s online resume."

Nick Arama thinks a New Report Reveals CIA Director John Ratcliffe Dropped One Heck of a Boss Move on Cuban Regime. "Ratcliffe made a point of introducing the paramilitary leader to the Cubans as the one who killed their people in Venezuela, several sources said. The presence of a paramilitary officer who was involved in capturing a key partner of the Cuban government just months earlier may have been intended to send a signal." Nora Clinton at LI has hopes Will Cuba Taste Freedom Soon? "A Convergence of Law, History, and Leadership Signals that Cuba’s Long Night May Be Ending." Josue (Ho-Su-eh) @WhatJosueSays, "Intelligence reports stated Maduro “feared” taking Trump up on his deal, because he was scared to be executed by his Cuban handlers When he was captured, he was being guarded by around 30-40 Cubans Now why on earth would the president of a sovereign country be guarded and “handled” by guards from other countries? Because the only colonizers and imperialists for the past 67 years, are the same ones who have blamed the US for these actions: The Cuban Regime." Quote Christian H Meier M @ChristianHMeier, "Replying to @WhatJosueSays "Venezuelan expat here, I can vouch. Throughout the 1960s the Cuban dictatorship tried to invade Venezuela 4 times; then they switched to infiltrating the armed forces, which resulted in Chávez and his 2 failed coups in 1992; and since 1999, in 27 years of chavista puppetry."

Tommy Christopher at Mediaite opines NFL Chief Goes Against Trump Over Schedule — But Trump and Strange Bedfellows Are Right.

Matt Vespa at TownHall asserts We Had a Massive BREAKTHROUGH in the South Carolina Redistricting Effort Eric Daugherty @EricLDaugh, "NOW: South Carolina Senate ADVANCES 2026 redistricting map that will ultimately be 7R-0D, set to ELIMINATE Rep. Jim Clyburn (D)'s district RINOS LOST THIS VOTE. The fight isn't over yet! The motion has advanced FINISH STRONG, SOUTH CAROLINA! Time is running low! Send the map to the governor! Multiple more votes needed in the coming hours." That would be worth the sturm und drang. PJM's Mark Tapscott starts a new series, When Reality Bites: Sen. Jon Ossoff and Rep. Jamie Raskin. The Victory Girls document how Jeffries Tries to Define What is/is not Acceptable anti-Semitism in Democrat Party, and blames Replicans for boosting anti-semitic Texas Democrat. At TownHall, Alan Bauer explores Why Do Jews Keep Voting For People Who Hate Them? NYPo,Vile video shows Israeli couple harassed by antisemitic hotel employee in California: ‘Are you a baby killer?’

The Manhattan Contrarian explains how Democrats are Driving Up The Cost Of Energy While Claiming To Promote "Affordability"

At Am Great a reminder, Former DOJ Attorney Charged with Stealing Confidential Trump Investigation Documents. FBI Director Kash Patel @FBIDirectorKash, "This afternoon, a former managing assistant U.S. Attorney who supported Jack Smith’s politicized investigation of President Trump has been charged with stealing the confidential investigation documents. Carmen Lineberger allegedly emailed the confidential material to her own personal email, disguising them as dessert recipes to conceal them from record searches. Lineberger is charged with four felony counts in the indictment. This FBI will not hesitate to bring to account those who violated the trust of the American public in an investigation that should’ve never been brought to begin with." How delicious! Charged with the same crime she was involved in persecuting Donald Trump for. Was Jack Smith involved? Will she roll on him?

Mary Rooke at Da Caller notes GOP Senators Tried To Cash In On Biden Spying — Now They Don’t Want Ordinary Americans To Get Same Relief.

At Da Caller, Trump Admin Closes Loophole Letting Migrants Stay In US While Awaiting Green Cards.

Mickey Kaus @kausmickey, "All told, a remarkable two-thirds of the Valley’s nearly 400,000 tech jobs are now held by those born abroad, according to a 2025 report from the think tank Joint Venture Silicon Valley." RCP, The Replacements: How US Helps Foreign Workers Take American Jobs. Most of them voted for it.

Dave Strom sees Nick Kristof Flunks Journalism 101 Again; UPDATE: Spanish Police Beat Activists.

A Driscolly post at Insty, OUR LONG NATIONAL NIGHTMARE IS OVER: The Long Farewell to Stephen Colbert Is Finally Over; Now We Can Laugh at the Grave Mourning of His Loss. jimtreacher.substack.com @jtLOL, "They're acting like it's the Kennedy assassination lol." Quote Anderson Cooper 360° @AC360 "Anderson Cooper shares some memories of being on "The Late Show."" TownHall's Jeff Charles notes the Democratic Party Gives Stephen Colbert Heartfelt Thanks for His Service. From Twitchy, Jim Acosta Didn't Like Greg Gutfeld's Reality Check About Colbert's Cancellation (Replies Off of Course). GregGutfeld @greggutfeld, "And it’s the reason they were canceled. That head count is more than most decent sized businesses. For 3 jokes a night, at best." Quote Brian Stelter @brianstelter "One of the great group shots of "The Late Show" staff posing on stage:" Jim Acosta @Acosta, "You are celebrating the fact that all of these people are losing their jobs. All because your dear leader can’t take a joke. Seriously wtf is wrong with you." Trump, of course, had nothing to do with Colbert's firing, not that he didn't take some joy in it. 

Elon Musk just put the entire university system on trial.

Not the curriculum. Not the professors. The premise.

Musk: “You don’t need college to learn stuff. Everything is available basically for free. You can learn anything you want for free.”

For a thousand years,… pic.twitter.com/F5FS6lzlts

— Shadow Intel (@TheShadowIntelX) May 22, 2026

From Twitchy, SpaceX Employees Asked Not to Chant Nationalist Dogwhistles on Livestream. USA! USA!

Insty at Insty, HR DEPARTMENTS DON’T ADD VALUE, BUT THEY’RE NOT MEANT TO. THEY’RE MEANT TO BE POLITICAL OFFICERS. Chet Cannon @Chet_Cannon, "Reminds me of a time when HR brought me in to accuse me of taping a live cockroach to another coworker's computer screen and setting his music to a loop of "La cucaracha" When I asked for the evidence... HR: "It just seems like something you would do"" Quote Polymarket @Polymarket, "JUST IN: Bolt CEO Ryan Breslow fired the company’s entire HR team because they were “creating problems that didn’t exist.”

The Wombat has FMJRA 2.0: Technical Difficulties up and garnering clicks at The Other McCain.

Well, He Got My Attention

Stacy McCain, Gosh, How Can I Get Readers to Pay Attention to the NFL’s COVID-19 Policy?

OK, you got my attention, now what?

Rachel Bush is an outspoken critic of the NFL’s COVID-19 policy. Perhaps you’ve never heard of her, and I had no idea who she was until this morning, when I started researching the upcoming game this Sunday between the New England Patriots and Buffalo Bills. In their earlier meeting — the Dec. 6 “wind tunnel” Monday Night Football game at Buffalo’s Highmark Stadium — the Patriots only threw three passes in a 14-10 victory over the Bills. The outcome of Sunday’s rematch will almost certainly decide the AFC East title, so I’ve been reading all the pregame coverage, including the news that Buffalo wide receiver Cole Beasley has tested positive for COVID-19 and will miss the game Sunday.

This led to some controversy, because Beasley is an outspoken anti-vaxxer and, because he’s unvaccinated, NFL rules require him to be regularly tested for the virus. So he got back a positive test, even though he was having only mild symptoms. Meanwhile, one of Beasley’s teammates, Bills offensive guard Jon Feliciano, had to go to the emergency room with a COVID-19 case, even though Feliciano is vaccinated. This prompted Beasley to write on Instagram: “Just to be clear Covid is not keeping me out of this game. The rules are. Vaxxed players are playing with Covid every week now because they don’t test.”

Which brings us back to outspoken critic Rachel Bush.
. . .
You see, Rachel Bush is the wife of Buffalo Bills safety Jordan Poyer, and she started sounding off about the NFL’s COVID-19 rules last summer.

None of this makes sense. Time to put a foot down. All these vaccinated athletes out here getting covid!! Instead of doing the logical thing and removing any restrictions against unvaccinated players they have done the exact opposite! Makes ZERO sense. Enough is enough.

Although I agree with her, the NFL is a business (albeit a business awarded the status of a legal monopoly), and has the right to set its own WuFlu policy. That said, I haven't watched at lot of NFL football in the last couple year. Colin Kaepernick might have had something to do with that. Hell, our closest team doesn't even have a proper name.

On the other hand, there's Rachel Bush. 

The Wombat has Rule 5 Sunday: The Feast Of St. Stephen up on time and under budget.

#HerToo Hits the NFL

NFL Network exec asked 'Do you plan on getting knocked up?'

Television sports reporter and host Lindsay McCormick took to Instagram late Tuesday and wrote that an NFL Network executive asked if she would “plan on getting knocked up” if she was hired.

Her post comes a day after Hall of Fame running back Marshall Faulk and two other NFL Network analysts were suspended amid numerous sexual harassment allegations made by a former wardrobe stylist at the network in an amended wrongful termination lawsuit.

“I've been quiet about this for too long,” McCormick wrote. “In my last interview with NFL Network a few years ago, the head of hiring talent said to me, ‘If we hire you, do you plan on getting knocked up immediately like the rest of them?’" ‘Them’ as in badass working women who deserve to have a family life as well? ‘Them’ as the women who work their tails off to be taken seriously in a man's world? Or ‘them’ who bring you a new audience and a tremendous amount of viewership? Because while I don't plan on ‘getting knocked up,’ I do plan on being like the rest of those brilliant women that our future daughters will one day look up to and see you can have it all.”

Yeah. I had my training too, and that's not a question you're supposed to ask a woman. You can ask a man if he intends to stay and build a career, or is he going to leap at the next chance to go up. Just don't expect an honest answer.

Wombat-socho has "Rule 5 Sunday: Wrapping Things Up" waiting and ready.

NFL Sunday: Skrælings Attack Vikings

In the ongoing controversy concerning the name of the Washington Redskins (a team not located in Washington, and having no Redskin Indian Native American players), I've come up with a new possibility for a name as the Redskins (3-5) take on the Vikings (3-5) in Minnesota at 1 PM EST. My proposal? The Landover Skraelings:

Skræling (Old Norse and Icelandic: skrælingi, plural skrælingjar) is the name the Norse Greenlanders used for the indigenous peoples they encountered in North America and Greenland. In surviving sources, it is first applied to the Thule people, the proto-Inuit group with whom the Norse coexisted in Greenland after about the 13th century. In the sagas, it is also used for the peoples of the region known as Vinland whom the Norse encountered during their expeditions there in the early 11th century.

The word skræling is the only word surviving from the Old Norse dialect spoken by the mediæval Norse Greenlanders. In modern Icelandic, skrælingi means a barbarian or foreigner. The origin of the word is not certain. William Thalbitzer (1932: 14) speculates that skræling might have been derived from the Norse verb skråla, meaning "bawl, shout, or yell".

 Or maybe "war cry"?

An etymology by Michael Fortescue et al. (1994) proposes that the Icelandic word skrælingi (savage) may be related to the word "skrá", meaning "dried skin", in reference to the animal pelts worn by the Inuit.

Some scholars have speculated that skrælingi came from the Scandinavian word skral or the Icelandic word skrælna. The word skral connotes "thin" or "scrawny". In the Scandinavian languages, it is often used as a synonym for feeling sick or weak, but this speculation is probably a case of folk etymology or linguistic "false friend"; the word skral does not exist in medieval Norse texts (for example the Icelandic sagas) nor in modern Icelandic. It is a 17th-century loanword from Low German into the Scandinavian languages: Danish, Norwegian and Swedish. Skræling or skrælling means weakling in modern Norwegian and Danish. Skrælna refers to shrinking or drying (plants for example). The term is moderately pejorative in Erik the Red's Saga as it is first used after a negative description of Native Newfoundlanders encountered in Vinland. First Nations people in Canada consider it offensive.

Of course they would. It's just the victors in the early battle for Eastern North America spitting on the losers.

One thing it would do is require adoption of Scandahoovian vowel "æ". Which doesn't help too much in terms of pronunciation:

In Danish and Norwegian, æ represents monophthongal vowel phonemes. In Norwegian, there are four ways of pronouncing the letter:

• /æː/ as in æ (the name of the letter), bær, læring, æra, Ænes, ærlig, tærne, Kværner, Dæhlie, særs, ærfugl, lært, trær ("trees")
• /æ/ as in færre, æsj, nærmere, Færder, Skjærvø, ærverdig, vært, lærd, Bræin (where æi is pronounced as a diphthong /æi/)
• /eː/ as in Sæther, Næser, Sæbø, gælisk, spælsau, bevæpne, sæd, æser, Cæsar, væte, trær ("thread(s)" (verb))
• /e/ as in Sæth, Næss, Brænne, Bækkelund, Vollebæk, væske, trædd

But in Iceland, it's pronounced as a dipthong, with the closest English pronunciation the "ie" in pie.

Speaking of the war on the Redskins name, it has become an issue in the midterm elections in Virginia, the northern part of which at least is in the Redskins sphere of influence as Virginia governor candidate Ed Gillespie (R) sides with the name Redskins, and accuses his democratic rival Mark Warner of not focusing on job creation while wasting time and effort on trivia:

The Gillespie spot refers to a bill that aims to “prohibit tax-exempt status to professional sports leagues that promote the use of the term redskins.” The Democratic bill comes after debate over whether the name should be considered a racial slur.

In the ad, Gillespie says, “I’ll answer the question. I’ll oppose the anti-Redskins bill. Let’s focus on creating jobs, raising take-home pay, and making our nation safer, and let the Redskins handle what to call their team.”

Oneida Indian Nation’s “Change the Mascot” campaign on Tuesday condemning the ad.
“The last time a Virginia Republican senate candidate actively promoted a racial slur, voters rightly rejected him,” Joel Barkin, the campaign’s spokesperson wrote in a statement. “As with former Senator George Allen, Ed Gillespie will likely lose the election promoting a dictionary-defined slur, but perhaps there will be a place for him on Dan Snyder’s payroll when it is all over.”

I don't think it's going to work.

No Joke: The Redskins Are Suing Five Native Americans

Five Native Americans are asking a Virginia judge to dismiss a lawsuit the Washington Redskins filed after the group successfully challenged the team's name, arguing it is offensive.

Lawyers for both sides were expected in federal court in Alexandria on Friday, where a judge was scheduled to hear arguments on whether the lawsuit should be thrown out.

The five won a victory earlier this year when a U.S. Patent and Trademark Office board ruled that six trademark registrations on the team's name should be canceled because they were "disparaging to Native Americans" when registered. The board acted after the group of Native Americans petitioned it to cancel the trademark registrations.

After the board's action, the team in August sued the five Native Americans, asking a federal court to stop the cancellation from happening.

The team, which has used Redskins as part of its name since 1933, says in court papers that the patent office board was wrong and that its trademarks are proper because the term was not offensive when the trademarks were registered. The team says canceling the trademarks, which were registered between 1967 and 1990, would violate the Constitution.

Lawyers for the five Native Americans argue that the Redskins' lawsuit against them should be dismissed because the team's real dispute is with the patent office.

Enjoy the game. And for you half-time reading may I suggest the Behind the Scenes look at the Vikings Cheerleaders Swimsuit Photo Shoot?

UPDATE: Well, the Redskins Scrælings lost 26 to 29 in a back of and forth game.  RG III did OK, but they didn't really look like a playoff team. Next week is a bye week with the next game on Nov. 16th against the Tampa Bay Buccaneers.

Wombat-socho has the grand "Rule 5 Sunday: Flowtation" up at The Other McCain.