...evidence that Israeli espionage operatives have intensified their already habitual eavesdropping on U.S. officials...

+ The Defense Intelligence Agency raised Israel’s counterintelligence threat designation to “critical”—its highest internal level—amid evidence that Israeli espionage operatives have intensified their already habitual eavesdropping on U.S. officials. The targets of the Israeli spies include Washington’s internal deliberations, war strategies, and peace negotiations regarding the Middle East and Iran. The internal Pentagon assessment concluded that Israel has increased efforts to intercept communications of high-ranking American personnel, including Trump’s negotiators Steve Witkoff and Jared Kushner, as well as the US military commanders in the region. The report noted that U.S. personnel operating in Israel now rely on burner phones and disposable laptops to avoid eavesdropping.

+ Congressional hearings on reports of systemic Israeli espionage against the US would consist of members of Congress interrogating Pentagon officials on why they forced Israel to engage in covert spying for the secrets instead of just faxing them to Tel Aviv on request. 

+ New York Post Columnist Miranda Devine: What do you say to people who claim Bibi Netanyahu tricked you into going into Iran?

Trump: They’re just the enemy. They’re dumbocrats. They want transgender mutilization [sic] of our children. He tricked me? I’m the one that started it. I’ll tell you what – if there wasn’t me, there would be no Israel right now.

+ “If there wasn’t a me…!”

+ Trump to Bibi: “I call the shots!” If he did, he wouldn’t feel compelled to say so…

+ It’s hard to believe the veracity of this reporting from Barak Ravid that a source told him Trump chewed out Netanyahu in a recent phone call over Israel’s ceaseless bombing of Lebanon: “You’re fucking crazy. You’d be in prison if it weren’t for me. I’m saving your ass. Everybody hates you now. Everybody hates Israel because of this.” A second source briefed on the call said Trump was “pissed” and at one point yelled at Netanyahu: “What the fuck are you doing?”

+ But if true, Netanyahu’s continued defiance of Trump only serves to illustrate his impotence. Given Ravid’s ties to the Israeli elites, perhaps Netanyahu leaked the story to show Israelis that he wasn’t Trump’s pawn.

+ Israel has killed more Palestinian children in the last 3 years than Palestinians have killed Israelis of any kind over the last 80 years.

+ Murtaza Hussain: “Trump needs to stop the war for his own political purposes, but does not seem capable of standing up to Netanyahu. This leads to the natural question of whether he has been compromised in some way or the Israeli infiltration and takeover of US institutions is already too advanced.”

+ Kenneth Roth, former head of Human Rights Watch: “For the first time in two decades of polling, more Americans sympathize with Palestinians (41%) than Israelis (36%), a reversal from 55% to 26% in Israel’s favor before the October 7th attacks. Even 57% of Republicans aged 18 to 49 now disfavor Israel.”

+ Holocaust survivor Stephen Kapos, who was interrogated by British police for attending a pro-Palestinian demonstration:  “What’s happening in Gaza is a Holocaust, and what’s being designed by Israel is the final solution to the Palestinian problem. As a Holocaust survivor, my reaction is: not in my name… brave people can resist.”

+ The Senate approved an additional $70 billion for Border Patrol and ICE, despite the fact that these agencies already have a combined $100 billion in unspent funds that were part of a previous DHS spending bill. If the House follows suit, ICE will have a larger budget than the Russian military ($157 billion).

+ Dr Oz: “You’re not allowed to complain about Somalians, because that’s racist. And the worst thing you can be in Minnesota is a racist.”

I hate to say it, but Oz is right for once. Singling out Somalis (or any other ethnic group) is racist and being a racist is one of the worst things you can be and, he might be surprised to discover, not just in Minnesota…

Andy Hamerlinck: The worst thing you can be in Minnesota is an ICE agent.

+ While Trump administration flaks keep saying that the ICE detention prison in Newark, New Jersey, houses the “worst of the worst…killers and rapists,” data obtained by the New York Times shows that very few of the detainees have criminal records.

+ As the US prepares to celebrate the 250th anniversary of the signing of the Declaration of Independence with cage fights on the White House lawn, the Trump administration is denying visas to fans of the Moroccan soccer team for its World Cup games. This rude treatment comes even though, in 1777, Morocco became the first country in the world to recognize the United States as a sovereign nation….

+ Only 11 percent of Europeans now view the US as an ally. Why would they? The fissure is long overdue for Europe’s own good.

+ The Trump family has made at least $2.3 billion in their cryptocurrency enterprises since Trump began his second term, according to an investigation by Reuters, while more than a million people who invested in their schemes have suffered at least $2.3 billion in losses, losses which the Trumps were protected against. A 2025 deal between the Trump family’s crypto enterprise World Liberty Financial and the publicly traded company then called Alt5 Sigma guaranteed the Trumps’ $500 million, according to company documents. But since the deal was announced, Alt5 Sigma’s stock has nose-dived more than 90%. And now, the company (now called AI Financial Corp.) is warning investors about its ability to continue as a going concern.

+ Donors to Trump’s “ballroom” fund were rewarded with $50 billion in federal contracts and, according to a report by Public Citizen, “most of those same companies are facing federal enforcement actions over alleged wrongdoing or have had such actions suspended by the Trump administration since the start of Trump’s second term.” In addition, over two-thirds of corporate ballroom donors – 19 out of 27 – received government contracts over the last 5 ½ years, totaling $338 billion. According to John Golinger, Public Citizen’s Democracy Advocate and author of the report,

These giant corporations aren’t funding the Trump ballroom fiasco out of the goodness of their hearts. They have massive interests before the federal government and they hope to curry favor with, and receive favorable treatment from, the Trump administration.  Millions to fund Trump’s bizarre fever dreams are nothing compared to the billions they’re getting back in contracts and favorable government enforcement decisions.  The American people are paying the price.

+ Speaking of the Ballroom, lawyers for Trump’s Justice Department defending the razing of the East Wing told a federal judge that Trump could also legally demolish the Statue of Liberty without any oversight if he wanted to. It’s already been demolished in spirit. They might as well pack it up and send it back to France.

https://www.counterpunch.org/2026/06/12/roaming-charges-data-my-eyes/