What the Media Won’t Tell You: Islamic Republic Is Losing. Give (Just) War a Chance. Progressive Wins NJ Seat. British Navy May Send Its Ship to Hormuz. Sometime. Noonan Praises Pope. More
Iranian leaders—whoever they are at this point—have had such a rough week. The U.S. blockade of the Strait of Hormuz gives the lie to the “Trump-never-had-a-plan” chorus, doesn’t it?
“Trump Bets Economic Pain Will Finally Force Iran to Reopen Strait” is a Wall Street Journal headline. Looks like a pretty good bet:
“It’s hard to see how Iran is able to withstand this economically,” said Max Meizlish, a former U.S. sanctions official and a research fellow at the Foundation for Defense of Democracies, a Washington think tank that advocates for a tough approach on Iran.
‘‘Winning’ Is a Strange Word for What Iran Just Experienced” is a National Review headline on a Noah Rothman story. Rothman writes:
If the Islamic Republic’s leadership — or what remains of it — had been consuming Western media coverage of the 40-day conflict with the United States and Israel, they could be forgiven for concluding that they won the war. …
The Strait of Hormuz remains a sticking point, but the U.S. blockade has cut Tehran off from meaningful sources of revenue-generation abroad. As Iranians conduct a sober evaluation of their predicament, its leaders are reportedly coming to terms with the gravity of their situation….
For all the thoroughly reported political pressure on the president to see this war through to a speedy and durable conclusion, little attention has been paid to the existential cataclysm the Islamic Republic just endured. That reality is only just dawning on Iran’s leadership in much the same way that the Western press is finally coming to terms with the conditions on the ground inside the Islamic Republic.
It’s one thing to recognize defeat. It’s another to acknowledge it. The Iranian regime would never give the West the satisfaction, but that doesn’t mean Tehran will not agree to terms that will render this war an unambiguous geopolitical success story. If it does not, three U.S. carrier battle groups and thousands of American soldiers will be ready to further impress upon the Iranian leadership that they do not, in fact, have the “upper hand.”
“There’s a lot of rubbish being written about the war with Iran,” AEI’s Danielle Pletka writes. Pletka today supplies decidedly non-rubbish reporting and insights. President Trump says that Iran has indicated it will give up nuclear material. That I’ll believe when it happens.
President Trump yesterday announced the possibility of direct talks between the leaders of Israel and Lebanon. Hezbollah, the terrorist group that has derailed normal government in Lebanon for decades, will not be at the table. The story just linked says this omission “risks confrontation” with the terrorists. Huh? Eliminating Hezbollah is the baseline for a functioning Lebanon.
Meanwhile, Fox Digital reports:
As British Prime Minister Keir Starmer and French President Emmanuel Macron convene a summit Friday on the future of the Strait of Hormuz, the two leaders are pushing a European-led plan to reopen the vital shipping lane after the war, without U.S. leadership.
This reminds me of Tom Sawyer’s trick of painting the fence. Guys, we want you to take some responsibility. They may be realizing that yes, President Trump could withdraw from NATO.
Despite having been a FISA victim himself, President Trump supports renewal of the spy authority, but the GOP House is punting. Also, here for a FISA update. The GOP’s slim majority in the House takes another hit as progressive firebrand Analilia Mejia wins the special election for New Jersey Governor Mikie Sherrill’s old House seat. She was backed by Bernie Sanders and Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez. What does it mean?
Mejia ran on a progressive Democrat platform, calling for the abolition of Immigration and Customs Enforcement, a $25 minimum wage, and other positions popular with the further-left members of Congress….
Our most famed socialist, New York Mayor Zohran Mamdani, trying to be faithful to his socialist roots, has made a beeline to the worst possible option to promote affordability, according to a City Journal article headlined “Mamdani’s East Harlem Grocery Store Boondoggle“:
The city will finance the store’s construction with $30 million from the capital budget. The store will have no debt service. Though privately operated, it will pay no rent or property tax.
Mamdani’s plan proposes, in essence, that the city will compete with local grocery stores—using public subsidies to lower the cost of staple foods—and that it will do so while paying store employees union wages. …
What should Mamdani do instead? The city could take the same $30 million and use it to help local entrepreneurs upgrade their stores—for example, with energy-efficient equipment. Such aid could be conditioned on competitive pricing of staples, though the city may lack the capacity to monitor these agreements effectively. The city could also upgrade bus service along East 116th Street, making it easier for residents without cars to reach stores like Aldi.
Mayor Mamdani, alas, as is often the case with socialists, needs ever more money to build the socialist tomorrow. National Review scarily suggests he might be coming for the pensions of some New Yorkers.
Ms. Must will go out on a limb: I bet there is a possibility that some of you are disappointing … to Elizabeth Banks. The New York Post’s Kristen Fleming writes about how some of us might have disappointed Ms. Banks (“Elizabeth Banks Is Shocked Not All ‘White Ladies’ Align with Her Views — Probably Because They Live in Real America“):
“I don’t understand the 53% of white ladies that didn’t vote for Kamala,” she told a Bustle podcast. “What were you thinking?”
But the funniest bit of the story is that Banks — who campaigned hard for both Hillary Clinton and Kamala Harris — believes she’s part of the righteous-but-downtrodden class of people striving to rise up, break their chains and do good for humankind.
She is yearning to taste freedom from the patriarchy.
Well, if Banks wants to break free from her multimillion-dollar Los Angeles home, great wealth, blockbuster productions and Hollywood Reporter Power Women list, go for it.
But sister, you are ruling class.
Brother Vance, you might be in the ruling class, too, but beware when the Wall Street Journal’s Kimberley Strassel gets out her rapier. Strassel takes a dim view of Vice President J.D. Vance’s recent activities in “Vancing the Night Away.” Mollie Hemingway takes a dim view of California Governor Gavin Newsom’s ability to lie but argues that it could be an advantage in his projected run for the White House. ‘Fraid Newsom even tricked the public about his book sales, too.
Give (Just) War a Chance. Rich Lowry has a great piece on war in National Review. Lowry writes:
Wars might be pointless, or fought for prestige, revenge, or territorial aggrandizement. That’s all true, but it doesn’t change the fact that military conflict is, at times, necessary and highly consequential; it can achieve beneficent ends, as well as awful ones.
It mattered for the spread of Christianity, for instance, that Constantine, who would become the first Christian emperor of Rome, won the Battle of Milvian Bridge in 312. Later, Christendom benefited from Ferdinand and Isabella taking back Granada from its Muslim rulers in 1492, and from the Holy Roman Emperor defeating the Ottoman besiegers of Vienna in 1683. …
In the early 20th century, Europe had a Hitler problem — a fanatical, race-obsessed militarist who wanted his Third Reich to dominate Europe. This problem, too, was solved by force and led to a lasting peace, although a very tense one during the Cold War. If it’s true that war should usually be the last resort, the Allies would have been better off if it had been the first resort against Hitler, checking him when he was relatively weak.
Pope Leo XIV has struck a chord with Peggy Noonan … We’re learning more on the coordinated campaign to frame President Trump for the Ukraine call. … And “I Am Descended from the PM Who Lost America – and No One Will Let Me Forget It,” by Tatiana North, in the Telegraph, is a delight.
