Will Trump Pull an Obama in Iran? MSM: Let’s Ignore Transgender Violence! Mamdani: Florida Real Estate Agent of the Year? Evie Mag Rates Glam Spread. More
Where is suave Obama negotiator John Kerry now that the mullahs need him? “Iran Wants Trump to Pull an Obama” is the headline over a Wall Street Journal editorial:
After Iran violently suppressed protests in 2009, President Barack Obama sought to trade U.S. silence for nuclear negotiations. Now Tehran is hoping President Donald Trump will make the same mistake. That was the logic of Tuesday’s nuclear talks in Geneva, though the military firepower that Mr. Trump has sent to the region leaves reason to wonder about his plans.
But President Trump promised to come to the aid of Iranian dissidents, who have died by the thousands since January. Focusing solely on nuclear negotiations overlooks them. The editorial concludes:
The fundamental error is thinking that the U.S. can stop the nuclear threat while reinforcing the regime’s hold on power, which is said to be a problem for the Iranians alone. That’s a cold view after the deaths of so many thousands in the streets, and it isn’t even true.
Iran’s nuclear obstinacy is rooted in the nature of the regime. Aggressive and revolutionary from the start, Iran’s regime has hardened into what the historian Ali M. Ansari calls an “Islamic security state”. Nuclear, missiles, massacres and proxy militias are all fallout from its rule. They won’t end until the regime does.
In a decidedly less accommodating tone, while nuclear negotiations continue, Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei threatens to sink American warships:
“The Americans constantly say that they’ve sent a warship toward Iran,” Khamenei posted on the social platform X. “Of course, a warship is a dangerous piece of military hardware.”
“However, more dangerous than that warship is the weapon that can send that warship to the bottom of the sea,” he added.
Iran has closed the Strait of Hormuz.
Ms. Must’s Own Gender/Sex Confusion. I knew this was bound to happen eventually. I got mixed up about the hockey rink shooting. The shooter, Robert Dorgan, was a man who sought to be a woman. I might find my mistake funny if the situation were not profoundly tragic and unnatural.
My mistake was accidental. The elite media is obscuring gender/sex issues intentionally. The Federalist has a great piece on this willful mistake:
A man who left his family to live as a woman and threatened to “Go BERSERK” in defense of transgender ideology shot and killed his son and the boy’s mother at a Rhode Island hockey game on Monday, but the corporate media really don’t want you to know he was a fanatical adherent of one of their pet ideologies.
Robert Dorgan underwent surgery to mimic female body parts in 2020 and went by the name “Roberta Esposito,” according to the New York Post. Hours before the shooting, he posted “Keep bashing us. But do not wonder why we Go BERSERK,” in response to a post that accurately described a cross-dressing congressman as male. According to local outlet WPRI, Dorgan’s “gender identity played a role in multiple family disputes over recent years,” including his divorce, but that fact has been deemed unpublishable by corporate media outlets, which gloss over the killings as a “family dispute.”
Incredibly, Pawtucket Police Chief Tina Goncalves said Dorgan’s “status” was not a factor in the family feud. The MSM followed her lead. Dorgan’s daughter speaks out (“We were targeted”). He killed his son and ex-wife and critically wounded the grandparents. “Trans Violence is a Troubling Blind Spot for the Left” is a London Telegraph headline. The Telegraph’s plea: “Psychologists seeking answers must be allowed to discuss gender ideology.” Karol Markowicz weighs in with a column headlined “The Rise in Transgender Killers Proves that We Have a Major Mental Health Crisis Unfolding.”
Now I Remember Why I Loved Boris. “Put Up or Put a Sock in It, Europe” is the headline on a Wall Street Journal op-ed by former U.K. Prime Minister Boris Johnson. “Continental leaders talk big about autonomy and independence from the U.S., but it’s all bluster,” Johnson argues. Frank Furedi similarly writes that Europe is still clinging to America’s security blanket, despite Secretary of State Marco Rubio’s warning.
“Stick ‘Em Up!” screams the New York Post front page. Pictured is New Yok’s socialist Mayor Zohran Mamdani as a bandit with bags of cash. Mamdani has presented his new budget:
Mamdani unveiled a $127 billion preliminary budget proposal for the next fiscal year, which begins in July. As part of that plan, Mamdani is relying in large part on a 9.5 percent increase in city property taxes — which he can do without state approval — to help close a projected $5.4 billion revenue shortfall over the coming two fiscal years.
Mamdani’s ‘Cuckoo’ Property Tax Hike Will Land Him ‘Real Estate Agent of the Year’ After Inevitable Exodus, Kevin O’Leary Says” is another New York Post headline. Mamdani has handed Governor Kathy Hochul a ticking time bomb.
“Democrats, You May Already Have Lost the 2028 Election” is the headline on Matthew Continetti’s Wall Street Journal column:
Mr. Shapiro is popular, well-spoken and capable but has yet to build a national coalition. There’s also the uncomfortable question of whether a party whose activist base has grown unsympathetic to Israel would nominate an observant pro-Israel Jew. Govs. Gretchen Whitmer of Michigan and Andy Beshear of Kentucky are unexciting. Gov. Wes Moore of Maryland hasn’t been able to shed his reputation for fabulism.
The list of possible contenders swells. When they look in the mirror, Sens. Mark Kelly, Ruben Gallego, Chris Murphy, Cory Booker and Jon Ossoff all see presidents staring back. Remember the “undercard” debates from the 2016 Republican campaign? Democrats may be in for a rerun.
Speaking of Governor Wes Moore’s reputation for fabulism, the Washington Free Beacon observes that “Wes Moore 2028 Drowning in River of Bullshit“. The MSM keeps trying to throw Moore a lifeline, but it’ a lot of — uh — fantasy stuff. Likewise, the New York Times tried to fix AOC’s Munich disaster, but it doesn’t appear to be working.
In “GOP Doesn’t Know Smith from Adam,” Jason Riley advises Republicans to read Adam Smith and recover their free-market roots, which Riley believes the Trump Administration has compromised:
Whether or not he realizes it, Mr. Trump is animated by a mercantilist conception of the world. But thanks to Smith, today we judge the performance of an economic system based on how efficiently it allocates resources to satisfy consumers, not merchants. Better to focus on creating wealth, not taking existing wealth from others. Republican officials spend a lot of time these days directing epithets like “Marxist” and “socialist” at their political opponents. But where is their criticism of Mr. Trump’s statist tendencies? And what is their competing approach?
Who’s Adam without Evie? The Wall Street Journal has a glam spread on Evie magazine, billed as the “Conservative Cosmo,’ which “Takes on the Cultural Moment:”
“Thanks for coming out for fashion week, we’re definitely mogging every other event,” announced Gabriel Hugoboom, using a slang term for visibly upstaging. His wife and fellow Evie co-founder, Brittany Hugoboom, beaming in a glittering leopard-print dress, interjected: “We started with a mission to embrace femininity, and we were definitely ahead of the curve for a couple of years,” she said.
The Most Disappointing Glove Since O.J. The glove found two miles from the house of Nancy Guthrie did not yield results helpful to finding the 84-year-old mother of Savannah Guthrie. The sheriff in charge of the investigation is facing severe criticism for his handling of the case. The FBI, meanwhile, appears to have suspects and is questioning gun store owners. A puzzling aspect of the case is the utter silence of abductors, unless you put stock in the alleged TMZ ransom notes.
Me Too. “The Trump Admin Is Serious About Western Civilization” is the headline on a story in the quirky (in a delightful way) The American Conservative. The TAC story was an analysis of Secretary of State Marco Rubio’s fine Munich speech which appalled the left.
Wishing you a happy Ash Wednesday.
