Category: Daily Musts

Well, it doesn’t appear as if Iran’s leaders are up for a spot of diplomacy.

The U.S. thwarted an “attempted surprise attack” by Iran’s Revolutionary Guard on U.S. troops. (More here.) Meanwhile, the U.S. and Saudi Arabia struck an Iran-backed group in Iraq. The Iran-backed group confirms that it sustained 20 deaths in the attack.

Suddenly President Trump is threatening to attack Iran’s Pickaxe Mountain nuclear facility, a site the United States previously left untouched:

Estimated to lie beneath at least 100 meters of rock near Iran’s damaged Natanz nuclear enrichment complex, Pickaxe was designed to replace an above-ground plant capable of assembling roughly 6,000 advanced centrifuges each year before it was destroyed in 2020.

[Trump’s] warning came after The Wall Street Journal reported that Israeli intelligence believes Iran moved thousands of centrifuges into Pickaxe last fall. Trump said the transfer “may have” occurred but added that the United States did not have it “on record.” 

For Senator Lindsey Graham’s “final summit” in Washington’s National Cathedral, leaders of the U.S., Israel and Ukraine “came together” to honor “a champion of all three.”  The Wall Street Journal observes:

A bipartisan roster of lawmakers, world leaders, family and friends gathered in Washington on Tuesday to remember Sen. Lindsey Graham, the South Carolina Republican who died this month at 71 years old. Trump, Vice President JD Vance and Fox News host Sean Hannity were among those who eulogized Graham, painting the portrait of a senator known for his wit and hawkish views on foreign policy.

Selected as key moments: President Trump’s calling the late Senator a “giant of the Senate,” and the same eulogist joking about his early friction with Senator Graham. Hannity highlighted Senator Graham’s support for Israel and Ukraine and hailed as the Senator’s “finest hour” his impassioned defense of now-Justice Brett Kavanaugh, as the camera cut to the Justice and Ashley Kavanaugh. Ms. Must adds to the list of important moments remarks by Senator Graham’s niece (daughter of Senator Darline) and Marjorie Dannenfelser of the Susan B. Anthony List reading the 46^th Psalm.

Examiner Chief Political Correspondent Byron York comments on President Trump’s rather jarring “‘He never saw a war that he didn’t like’.” (Otherwise, the president was unusually controlled and brief.) An editorial in the Wall Street Journal hailed “The Lindsey Graham Example,” asking, “Will anyone take his place as an advocate for freedom and U.S. interests abroad?” The Senate voted after the funeral to advance Russia sanctions bill in Graham’s name.

The marquee event today will be a much-tarnished Dr. Anthony Fauci, the face of the draconian response to Covid, testifying on Capitol Hill. Fauci is testifying courtesy of his nemesis Senator Rand Paul, who released Fauci’s diaries and is Fauci’s Inspector Javert when it comes to the origins of Covid. Senator Paul details at Fox Digital his case against Fauci and others in the science establishment who denied that the virus originated in the partially U.S. funded Wuhan lab, but in private communications said otherwise. Drew Holden writes at Substack that the “Legacy Media’s Fauci Love Affair Might’ve Buried COVID’s Origins.”

Will today’s Fauci hearing feature Senators posturing and fulminating, or will they ask questions aimed at extracting the truth? The Federalist has a handy list of questions designed to uncover alleged corruption and cover-up. A key issue is “gain of function” research, which Dr. Fauci dismisses. Dr. Jay Bhattacharya, an eminent scientist, once dismissed as “fringe” by Fauci supporters, now head of the National Institutes of Health, has a Wall Street Journal op-ed today headlined “How NIH Will End Dangerous Gain-of-Function Research.” Subhead: “The U.S. acts to foster life-sciences experiments while minimizing the risk of a pandemic or other catastrophe.”

So, What Do You Really Think? “Mamdani is carving out a historic path — an NYC mayor who hates the city, its people and is trying to destroy both” is the headline on Michael Goodwin’s column this morning:

[T]o my knowledge, Zohran Mamdani is in a class of one. He is the first mayor in modern times who appears to hate the city and many of the 8 million people who call it home.

As he constantly makes clear, he is not here to fix things. He is here to smash the city as it is and build a socialist utopia in its place.

A troubling result is that seven months into his tenure, Mamdani remains in constant campaign mode. His appearances and public remarks are aimed exclusively at his supporters, here and in leftist outposts around America and the world.

Governing in the broad public interest of the people who actually live in the city does not appear to be part of his plan.

We mentioned yesterday Mayor Zohran Mamdani’s dangerous listing of names and addresses of New Yorkers whose taxes Mamdani wants to raise because they putatively have second homes in New York. Jarrett  Stepman of the Daily Signal observes:

It should be no surprise that New York City Mayor Zohran Mamdani not only wants to tax the rich but dox them too.

Yet, as a Fox News report also noted, “critics argue the database goes well beyond traditional public records by compiling the names and addresses of affluent property owners into a single, easily searchable location, potentially creating new privacy and security risks.”

It’s a little hard to believe that this database was just created for the purpose of easy compliance.

Is it a stretch to think that public information about where wealthy people live won’t make some of them a target for vicious fanatics looking to make a name for themselves?

Israel’s Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, in Washington yesterday to attend the funeral of Senator Lindsey Graham, told Sean Hannity that he will not allow Mamdani’s threats to deter him from visiting New York:

“I’m definitely going there,” the Israeli prime minister continued. “I’m going to speak the truth in front of this, you know, hate-spewing elected official who’s pitting one group of New Yorkers against the others.” 

Must Be Noted…

Ms. Must did a double take. The headline on Wall Street Journal’s dyed-in-the-wool liberal columnist William Galston today is: “Trump Has a Point About the Smithsonian.”

“The AI Future Is for Everyone” is the headline of Mark Zuckerberg’s op-ed in the Wall Street Journal. Good pitch:

It is surprising that the discourse from many of those who are developing artificial intelligence is so filled with doom. I don’t understand why anyone who believes that AI will eliminate most jobs and much of humanity’s relevance would rush to build that future. The notion that AI is so dangerous that the only safe path is an extreme concentration of power seems dangerous.

Historically, hoping that an absolute power will benevolently provide for humanity if sufficiently enlightened hasn’t led to safe or positive outcomes. …

Putting power in people’s hands to pursue their own aspirations is how humanity has made the most progress. 

This is turning into a WSJ extravaganza. But I can resist one more: “Thank You for Your Success, He Said,” Rob Arnot’s account of a taxi ride:

When the call ended, the driver said something startling: “Thank you for your success.” I asked why my success made him grateful. He replied, “First, because of your success, you’re a paying customer for me. Second, you would not be successful unless you have a product that makes your customers happy, and that makes the world a better place.”

In a healthy capitalist system with strong rule of law and a light regulatory burden, success means producing something people value more than its price and are therefore happy to buy. J.K. Rowling is one of Europe’s wealthiest women because millions of families value her stories more than the cost of her books. Jeff Bezos, Bernard Arnault and Elon Musk created superior products for millions of happy customers. Otherwise, they wouldn’t be centibillionaires….

Thirty years on, I still remember my driver’s insight. His wisdom wasn’t his gratitude for me; he didn’t know me. It was his rejection of resentment and his respect for those who succeed. Most success is earned by improving an ever-changing world. In a world awash in the politics of envy, he practiced a politics of gratitude. Instead of resenting success, can’t we be grateful when achievement is fairly earned?

Another lull in U.S. airstrikes on Iran as President Trump on Friday paused a planned U. S. escalation: 

President Trump has put off a major escalation of his military campaign against Iran amid efforts to revive diplomacy to open the Strait of Hormuz and a debate over the impact of declining munitions stocks, according to U.S. officials familiar with the matter. 

The U.S. military had been poised Friday to launch an intensive series of strikes against Iran, which could have lasted up to two weeks, the officials said.

Senator John Kennedy, Republican from Louisiana, seems to have joined the “finish the job quickly” faction:

Kennedy said the US should act quickly to accomplish its war goals as the conflict approaches its sixth month, warning the president that previous daily attacks on Iran are just not working.

“The president likes the daily attacks. He believes that sometimes you have to kill a few chickens to scare the monkeys,” Kennedy told CBS News’ “Meet the Press,” referencing the old Chinese idiom.

“I don’t think that’s going to work with the Iranian leadership,” he added. “These people are more than mildly insane. It’s like dealing with Son of Sam or Charles Manson.”

Wall Street Journal “Free Expression” columnist Matthew Continetti has a similar take: “If President Trump wants to win this war, he must deliver crippling blows to the Islamic Republic’s government,” Continetti argues. Eli Lake of The Free Press is similarly blunt: “Mr. President, Give Up on a Nuclear Deal with Iran.”

Meanwhile, Henry Olson proposes the heretofore unthinkable in an Examiner op-ed headlined “Winning in Iran means boots on the ground. Just win, baby.” Iran says it is not seeking talks with the U.S. Iran issues threats against Ukraine after Ukraine struck a tanker on the Caspian Sea. The price of oil was down, and the market was up early this morning because of the lull. Also, here.

The tragic attack on a Gay Pride event in Berlin left one dead and sixteen injured. “Oh, You Knew Someone Was Going to Say That About the Terror Attack at a Berlin Pride Event,” is Matt Vespa’s Townhall headline:

Initially, we didn’t know who the suspect was, but we knew it wasn’t someone from Polynesia. And it wasn’t the Amish. The suspect was identified as ‘Abdul B.,’ who had terror ties, and he was killed by German police (via NBC News). …

“I had hoped the attacker was not an Arab-Muslim, but a white Christian person,” [someone at a vigil] said.

I mean, we knew this could sneak in since the Left is moronic, dense, and addicted to suicidal empathy. But, still, get a grip, folks.

There was also a shooting at a Seattle food festival that left three dead and four (including a toddler) wounded. We don’t know anything about the suspects, one in custody and one at large this morning. Seattle socialist Mayor Katie Wilson put out a statement that features this gem: “Gun violence changes families forever.”

The Democratic Socialists of America have released their agenda—which includes abolishing the Senate. Before you harumph about the Senate’s faults, this Wall Street Journal editorial explains why we need it:

It’s important to understand how radical this is, essentially blowing up the Constitution’s separation of powers. Letting Congress choose the President means adopting the parliamentary system that prevails in Britain. It would essentially remove the presidential veto power that the Founders designed as a check on the legislative passions of the day.

Ditto for ending an independent judiciary, which is a check against legislative and executive violation of individual rights. Third World dictators seek to make the judiciary subservient to the ruling party for this reason, as they did in Venezuela, and as Mexico’s Morena party is now attempting to do.

The left loathes the Senate because it is also a restraint on temporary majorities. The Senate’s design, with two Members from each state, gives an equal voice to small and large states. This prevents dominance by California, New York and Texas. And it buttresses the federalist principles at the core of the Constitution’s design, which preserves certain powers to the states as a check on Washington, D.C.’s commandments.

“The Republicans Who Enable Socialists,” by Allyssia Finley, explains how GOP lawmakers can’t agree on spending, so they continue to fund taxpayer-supported nonprofits that support the progressive left. An even more shocking use of public money: “Taxpayer-funded trans dolls with removable genitalia to hit classrooms this fall for kids as young as 4 to ‘learn about different options’.” Meet the dolls:

“First-of-their-kind” transgender dolls — complete with removable genitalia — will debut in some Minnesota classrooms this fall to kids as young as 4 years old.

The paper dolls, with gender-neutral names like “Sam,” “Rory,” “Avery” and “Parker,” have removable internal and external genitals, along with more than 100 interchangeable pieces of clothing, accessories and hairstyles — like a trans Mr./Mrs. Potato Head.

The Medical School’s Institute for Sexual and Gender Health research over those six years included paying $20 to $60 for “trans and gender diverse” children and their parents to play with the dolls and “talk about gender and bodies” in groups.

The goal is for kids to “learn about the different options that exist for who they can be,” according to a therapist at the University of Minnesota Medical School, which spent over half a decade developing the controversial project funded by lefty Minnesota Gov. Tim Walz

All Hail Queen Sophie: “With a highly memeable 22-second point, the WNBA star joined the ranks of sports royalty,” writes Kyle Smith:

Sophie Cunningham, a guard for the Indiana Fever, went viral, and then became a political piñata. In both cases she had merely pointed out the obvious. After her WNBA teammate Caitlin Clark was hit with a technical foul for a dustup with an opposing player on June 22, Ms. Cunningham thought both players were at fault, so she pointed to the other one, DeWanna Bonner. And pointed. And pointed. The pointing continued. At some point the pointing became the point, and hit the point of hilarity. Those 22 seconds changed the tides of the internet. For anyone who had never heard of Sophie Cunningham before, it was the Point of No Return….

Any high-pulchritude blonde woman who expresses views to the right of the extremist half of the Democratic Party is sure to be denounced as “MAGA Barbie,” like Sydney Sweeney and Gwen Stefani, and the same worn-out nickname was plastered on Ms. Cunningham. Staying on-brand, she wasn’t having it: “I’m clearly white and from Missouri, and so I think there was a lot of assumption there,” she told the New York Times last year. “All I have to say is I really am right in the middle, and I think a lot of America is like that. . . . In our culture today you have to choose and you have to be an extremist, and that’s just not me. So, I agree with things on both sides; I disagree with things on both sides.” Pop-culture writer Chuck Klosterman predicted she’d be vice president by 2050.

We Don’t Have Enough Children. “America’s Big Cities Are Rapidly Losing Kids,” and “Regulations Are Keeping Families Smaller Than They Want to Be.”

“Where’s Mamdani?” A New York mother slams Mayor Zohran Mamdani for not doing enough about gang violence after the innocent son of a cop was killed. But Mayor Mamdani has more important things to do:

NBA star Kyle Kuzma blasted New York City Mayor Zohran Mamdani for “cosplaying” as president over his empty threat to arrest Israel Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu.

The Milwaukee Bucks forward said online that Mamdani’s video address last week showed he is more concerned with “content” than running America’s biggest city.

Mayor Mamdani isn’t the only public figure to have an inflated notion of himself. “Anthony Fauci was the ‘big head’ of COVID response,” according to Miranda Devine’s latest column. She predicts that “vanity will be his undoing” when he is questioned under oath by Senator Rand Paul on Wednesday.

We Don’t Have Enough Children. “America’s Big Cities Are Rapidly Losing Kids,” and “Regulations Are Keeping Families Smaller Than They Want to Be.”

TGIF. We got through the week with the good news that New York’s Mayor Zohran Mamdani “arrest Bibi” meme was just an empty campaign promise. Lettuce, on the other hand, had a terrible week (here and here). 

Friday brings us tidings that President Trump is “losing patience” with Iran’s leaders, whoever they might be:

President Trump was fed up.

During a recent meeting in the Oval Office, he launched into a tirade against Iranian leaders, calling them scumbags and lunatics, and unleashing a series of expletives, according to a person who heard the comments.

As the war in Iran enters its fifth month, Trump is increasingly frustrated that a conflict he once thought would be over in a matter of weeks has dragged on with no end in sight, administration officials and others close to the president said.

Some of Trump’s advisers now worry that the war—which has resulted in higher prices, falling approval ratings and the deaths of more than a dozen U.S. servicemembers—is consuming his presidency and damaging Republicans’ already dim prospects in the coming midterm elections.

The president is depicted as “skeptical of diplomacy” and in “revenge mode.”  Ditto Ms. Must. Meanwhile, Yemen’s Houthis, tribal terror clients of Iran, are trying to block Saudi oil in the Red Sea. The Houthi card, according to a Wall Street Journal editorial, is designed to make President Trump blink, as oil prices went above $100. The Houthis are accidentally making the point that “ceding Hormuz to Iran will be a damaging precedent for global commerce and American deterrence.” Trump is “weighing a massive attack on Iran,” which the New York Post cover summarizes as “Go Big and Come Home.”

The New York Post editorializes: “Bomb threat from the Trump admin will force Iran to the negotiating table.” Ms. Must hates to be a party pooper, but it’s bombs, not blustery “bomb threats,” that carry weight. What does the U.S. hope to get out of negotiations this go-round? U.S. foreign policy is the subject of an online conversation between New York Times columnist and War Department official Elbridge Colby.

The Other War. Michael Barone has a good piece about the Ukraine War. Wars remake war, Barone argues, and the Ukraine War is remaking war once again.

Here we go again—yet another baffling search for an elusive motive.

Whatever could have gotten into this guy?

A suspect is in custody after allegedly yelling “Allahu Akbar” while stabbing two men in what officials are describing as an apparent antisemitic attack in Manhattan’s Upper West Side Thursday afternoon.

The New York City Police Department (NYPD) said one of the victims is Jewish and that witnesses reported hearing the suspect yell “Allahu Akbar” during both assaults, which took place near West 84th Street and Central Park West, a large Jewish community.

Investigators are evaluating whether the reported attacks should be classified as a hate crime and identified the suspect as Raul Morales, 51, in both assaults

New York Mayor Zohran Mamdani was slow to respond to the incident, leaving a City Council member to criticize him. We may never know the motive of the alleged stabber. The (satirical?) Babylon Bee looks on the bright side:

New Yorker Being Stabbed on Street Corner Glad to Know Mamdani Focused on Bringing Netanyahu to Justice

Meanwhile, Mayor Mamdani turns his attention to the more congenital issue of class warfare. Rob Henderson of The Free Press remarks on Mamdani’s contention that anyone who makes less than a million a year is working class. “The socialist mayor says anyone earning less than $1 million a year is working class. In reality, the label has little to do with how much money you make,” counters Henderson.

This makes Joel Kotkin’s “Socialism for the Elites” in Spiked Online especially illuminating:

Socialism is au courant in America today, though in its 21st-century form, it is less a rebellion of the proletariat than a by-product of the capitalist elite. Through its continued efforts to decrease the returns to human labour and by financing the very groups and ideologies increasingly dedicated to its overthrow, socialism has found fertile ground.

A Washington Post headline signals a possible rough patch for Vice President JD Vance: “Knives are out for Vance in the GOP. His allies say it’s a coordinated ‘op.’” Wall Street Journal columnist Kimberley Strassel counters that Vance “minions” have their knives out for her (“How to Lose Friends and Alienate People, by JD Vance“). It started with Strassel’s column last week that was critical of Vance:

Most telling as to how this crew operates was the Federalist’s Sean Davis, who accused me of “pulling” an “obvious little stunt” against Mr. Vance, “whose wife just gave birth.” This appeared above my headline, “President Vance Goes AWOL.” The implication was that I’d criticized the vice president for taking a day of paternity leave. But as Mr. Davis knew, Usha Vance didn’t bear little Alec—mazel tov—until five days after Mr. Vance’s controversial absence. What Mr. Davis also knows is that online mobs don’t check facts, and he got his desired result: hundreds of posts slanging me as not just a traitor, but an unfeeling ass.

Also as a “deep state” “Marxist” “liberal” “corrupt” “billionaire lackey,” an “intellectually dishonest” “uniparty mouthpiece,” who is little more than a “scumbag propagandist,” and “anti-Trump,” and who lives for the “donor class.”

If they think that’s bad, they should hear what my kids call me.

Can Mr. Vance possibly think this is smart?

The AOC for President meme had a pretty good week. AOC’s rival Governor Gavin Newsom, on the other hand, was accused of pushing California to the brink. The accusation was in a wide-ranging sound piece in the Washington Post featuring Kate Andrews and Victor Davis Hanson. 

More Golden State News. A hot mic caught Sacramento’s Mayor and Vice Mayor candidly strategizing after the public sent a public discussion of immigration off the rails:

“We should go over this disruptions thing, because if we want to ban somebody in the future, like to take them out, we have to point out specifically…” Vice Mayor Karina Talamantes is heard saying.

A Wall Street Journal editorial isn’t sold on the Stop Insider Trading Act:

Congress’s anger entrepreneurs are—who would have guessed?—honking upset. For months they’ve raged that the Capitol is full of legislators making corrupt fortunes from “insider trading” in the stock market. This isn’t reality. But the House responded to public concern Wednesday by passing, in a 232-198 vote, a bill called the Stop Insider Trading Act….

The Stop Insider Trading Act is best understood as an attempt to forestall greater populist nonsense. But no one should expect it will somehow make Congress more ethical. It will mainly make it safer for lawyers and career politicians.

It Just Slipped Up on Me. The redo of the White House Correspondents Association Dinner is tonight. The traditional black-tie dinner in April was abruptly ended when Cole Allen allegedly attempted to assassinate President Trump.

This was Odyssey Week. For what it’s worth, I loved it. So did Rich Lowry (“Sorry, haters, Christopher Nolan’s Odysseus is no wimp — but a hero for our times”):

The most fevered critics of the movie on the right suggest that Christopher Nolan seeks to subvert the Western tradition.

If so, the director — who has renewed interest in a Western classic and ends with a paean to the Western zest for exploration — has a funny way of going about it. 

While finding the movie “rudderless,” First Things found “much to like” in it. Me too.