WHOM THE GODS WOULD DESTROY, THEY FIRST MAKE RIDICULOUS: UMinn bias report: Someone said ‘mothers’ instead of ‘lactating individuals.’

They must really be out for U. Minnesota.

OF COURSE: UPenn ‘America 250’ courses largely ignore America’s founding, conservative analysts say.

ROGER KIMBALL: Trump Has Iran Over A Barrel.

What, after all, is he up to? The commentariat proffers several conflicting narratives. The one common thread is the certainty with which these opinions are uttered. Trump is an idiot. Trump is a genius. For those who say that he has thrown in the towel – that Iran has “won” – I’d offer two observations.

First, it is an odd sort of winning a war when your adversary eliminates your navy, air force, most of your air defense capability, large swaths of your stock of missiles and drones along with the industrial capacity to produce them, not to mention two or three levels of your top leadership, all within a matter of days.

Second, anyone who has pondered President Trump’s adventures in foreign policy knows that two things are true of him. He is a constant advocate for peace. He is also waspish when crossed. Just ask Qasem Soleimani, the Iranian terror-lord whom Trump vaporized in a drone attack during his first term. Cast your mind back to last June’s Operation Midnight Hammer, when a fleet of B-2s, supported by a passel of Tomahawk cruise missiles, buried Iran’s three major nuclear sites. Remember what happened to Nicolás Maduro in January? And then, of course, there is the fury of Operation Epic Fury.

Trump held Iran’s head underwater for six weeks. He pulled it up and let it sputter while he offered the mullahs an off-ramp. But Secretary of State Marco Rubio, responding to the press, is right. “The idea that somehow this President, given everything he’s already proven he’s willing to do, is going to somehow agree to a deal that ultimately winds up putting Iran in a stronger position when it comes to nuclear ambitions is absurd!”

Indeed. Trump is waiting impatiently while the Iranians prance and posture. The IRGC tried laying some mines in the Strait of Hormuz and: pow! The US took out the boats involved and destroyed a surface-to-air missile battery in Bandar Abbas that was targeting US warplanes. “These were defensive strikes,” a US spokesman said. “They do not indicate the ceasefire is over.”

What they do indicate is that Trump is serious about his terms. First, the Strait of Hormuz is an international waterway, not Iran’s territorial property. Shipping must be free to travel through it. Second, Iran cannot be allowed to develop a nuclear weapon. A codicil to that imperative is that Iran must relinquish or destroy (under supervision) its approximately 900 pounds of highly enriched uranium. Third, Iran must stop funding terrorist proxies in Lebanon, Gaza – and elsewhere.

There are some things left off Trump’s list of demands. The most prominent has to do with the Iranian people. Back in January, when the mullahs were slaughtering protesters by the tens of thousands, Trump promised that “help is on the way.” In announcing the start of Epic Fury on March 1, Trump said US and Israeli joint military action would so damage the regime that the people could oust the leaders and replace the government. That hasn’t happened yet.

Opinions differ about the resilience of the Shia regime in Iran. I suspect that, like most totalitarian regimes, it presents to the world a seamless carapace of bluster. But the strength of that shell is deceptive. Once a few cracks appear, it may quickly shatter.

Now that Iran’s Internet censorship has partly broken down, we’re seeing images of riots, demonstrations and unrest. My speculation is that we’ve been running guns in to the opposition — no doubt with help from the Mossad, which seems to have penetrated Iran everywhere — and that the revolution will break out when it’s time. But that’s just speculation.

GEORGE LEEF: For Many Students, Education Is an Afterthought. “For many young Americans, schooling and credentials matter, but actual education is an afterthought. They have many other things they’d rather do than work to master course material, but since they’ve enrolled and paid, they believe that they’re entitled to good grades and degrees.”

Nothing new about that. As one of my college professors once remarked, education is the only consumer product where most consumers want to get as little as possible for their money.

DEMOCRATS’ SEXISM: Girl Math: Democrat Gov Says Party Doesn’t Need Any Male Voters.

CRAZY DEMOCRATS: Far-Left House Candidate Backed by AOC and Hasan Piker Said Corporate CEOs ‘Should Fry,’ Called for ‘Frequent and Swift’ Death Penalty for CEO ‘Gangs.’

HAHA: Somebody’s Panicking: Bipartisan Effort to Reform CA’s Top-Two Primary System Underway.

YES, GROCERY STORE PAY IS PRETTY LOW. But grocery stores typically run 1-3% profit margins, so they’re not exactly getting fat off exploiting their workers.

WE ARE LIVING IN THE FUTURE:

True https://t.co/V1tRbKKjJL

— Elon Musk (@elonmusk) May 29, 2026

OPEN THREAD: Ring in the weekend.

ROBERT HEINLEIN AND PROF. BERNARDO DE LA PAZ SAY YES: Companies like SpaceX want electromagnetic catapults on the moon. Could they be used as weapons?

GOOD: Weight Loss on GLP-1 Drugs Linked to Lower Risk of Disease, Study Finds.

THE LEFT IS ALWAYS TRYING TO STACK THE RULES TO GUARANTEE A WIN:

Here's what they've normalized and are trying to reinforce with the Jaxson Dart situation:

Black people can be offended by what white people believe. But white people can't be offended by what black people believe.

It's legal to love and worship Barack Obama. It's illegal to…

— Jason Whitlock (@jasonwhitlock) May 29, 2026

But don’t play by their rules. I mean, even they don’t play by their rules for long before they change them.

SCIENCE: Scientists Discover Sperm Seem To Bypass a Fundamental Law of Physics.

FASTER, PLEASE: Lab-grown heart patch boosts pumping power in severe heart failure trial.

GOOD IF YOU LIVE NEAR PORTLAND, OREGON OR DEARBORN, MICHIGAN: 2027 Rezvani Fortress Revealed as Apocalypse-Ready Stronghold.

BUT THEY TELL US VOTER ID IS RACIST: Why is it Ten Times Harder to Get a Gun Permit in New Jersey If You’re Black?

BASTIAT’S WINDOW: Planepooling—Commercial Aviation Reinvented: If we could reinvent American commercial aviation from scratch today, regional travel might well resemble Uber’s ridesharing models.

I wrote about that in Popular Mechanics back in 2010, and I’m ready for it to happen.

UPDATE: I had some further thoughts here, 20 years ago: Jet You.

OOPS: Mosquitoes can learn that DEET means dinner is served.

When I was in Alaska, I used the 100% DEET and just a few drops on pulse points kept me from getting a single bite, though to be fair, mosquitoes don’t particularly like me. But it was still scary. I woke up one night and there were two mosquitoes at the foot of the bed. “Do we eat him here, or should we take him home?” “We’d better eat him here — if we take him home the big guys will probably take him away from us.” Close scrape.

I BELIEVE MY COBLOGGER STEPHEN GREEN DOES THE SAME: Pigeons may be navigating with their liver, study suggests.

I’D VOLUNTEER TO PARTICIPATE IN THESE EXPERIMENTS, BUT. . . China is testing whether humans can reproduce in space.

VITAMIN D UPDATE: Vitamin D in milk is not equivalent to levels in rat poison.

HAHA:

🚨 LMAO! REPORTER: "You wrote 'RESILIENCE' on your notes in the cabinet meeting several times when the photographer zoomed in! Why did you write those notes?!"

BESSENT: "So people could look over my shoulder, photograph it, and think they got a scoop!" 🤣 pic.twitter.com/c7QAmXVTQq

— Nick Sortor (@nicksortor) May 28, 2026

TRENT TELENKO TAKES A VICTORY LAP:

This is where I get to openly laugh at US Navalist accounts on X in 2026 yet again after they claimed "drones aren't a threat to warships" in 2023.

1/2 pic.twitter.com/mNnP4cPbhe

— Trent Telenko (@TrentTelenko) May 28, 2026

HIGHER EDUCATION BUBBLE UPDATE: 442 colleges could close in next decade over ‘financial exigency’: report.

Related:

Universities had 17 years of warning. They responded by doing the opposite of what the math demanded.

In 2008, American birth rates fell off a cliff. The Great Recession made people stop having kids. Those never-born children would be turning 18 right now. The number of U.S.… https://t.co/0tI8qYNR94

— Aakash Gupta (@aakashgupta) May 19, 2026

All is proceeding as I have foreseen.