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Issue: Foreign Affairs

Only the U.S. Could Have Pulled Off Rescue. Miranda Devine on Greasy Gavin’s Helpmeet. SNL Chortles at Trump Assassination Joke. Dog Votes in CA. And More

Posted on by Charlotte Hays

Phew … the downing of two American pilots over Iran might have ended in tragedy. Instead, it was a uniquely American triumph. “Britain couldn’t have pulled off this Iran rescue,” admits a Member of the U.K. Parliament:

The American airman will have had to display huge courage but he would have known the most powerful military in the world was with him.

“We got him,” President Trump said. The New York Times report said that the capture of the Air Force Colonel (who has not been identified” could have been “possible leverage” for Iran—ya think? Unlike the U.K. Member of Parliament, a New York Times analysis found that the American rescue “dangerously emboldened” both the U.S. and Iran.

The New York Post (Ms. Must proffers thanks for a great newspaper that doesn’t parrot the pathetic elites) describes how a seriously injured American pilot climbed a mountain, hid in a crevice, and dodged Iranian bounty-hunters for 36 hours:

The tough-as-nails US Air Force colonel shot down over Iran was seriously wounded but still climbed a 7,000-foot ridge and hid in a crevice to evade capture for 36 hours — even with bounty-hunters on his tail.

The cool-as-a-cucumber American hero, who has yet to be publicly identified, spent one and a half days hiding in the Zagros Mountains range and dodging the enemy after his F-15E went down in hostile territory Friday.

The CIA and SEAL Team 6 resorted to subterfuge to throw Iranian bounty hunters off the trail. Here’s another account of the amazing rescue. An editorial in the Wall Street Journal cites the rescue as evidence of American competence and bravery:

Within hours of the crash, the press was already asking the White House press secretary if the airman’s capture would complicate President Trump’s war strategy. Instead the rescue is a moment to celebrate a wartime triumph.

It is nothing short of remarkable that more U.S. pilots haven’t been shot down in the month since the war began. This testifies to the U.S. and Israeli dominance of the skies, even if the risks of a lucky shot from the ground can never be eliminated in a conflict.

President Trump has given Iran until Tuesday evening to open the Strait of Hormuz or else. The New York Times quotes Iranian officials saying that Trump’s “or elses” amount to war crimes. The Free Press’s Eli Lake is also against bombing Iran’s civilian infrastructure, but because it will be needed if opposition forces are able to establish a new government.

Super-duper New York Post op-ed by former CIA agent Martin Gurri answers the 10 most important questions about the Iran war (e.g., is this war legal?). “Experts” are arguing that Iran is winning, leading The Free Press’s Armin Rosen to ask, “Why are so many pundits, professors, and think-tankers arguing the absurdity that Iran is the real winner of a conflict it is lopsidedly losing?” This Just In: Iran’s Intelligence Chief has just been killed. Mark Penn posts on X that the next two weeks are critical.

Oh, let’s have some good, clean fun. We won’t be downright sledgehammer nasty as liberals are about conservative women, but Ms. Must predicts that Jennifer Siebel Newsom is destined to give conservatives more fun than we’ve had since Teresa Heinz Kerry addressed the DNC. Miranda Devine writes about Gavin Newsom’s helpmeet this morning:

Jennifer Siebel Newsom is the very avatar of Democrat Woman.

Haughty, hectoring and pleased with herself, she is single-handedly wrecking her henpecked husband Gavin’s lofty political ambitions.

Over the weekend, she inserted herself into the news again with an Instagram video pontificating that the departure of Pam Bondi and Kristi Noem from President Trump’s cabinet is proof that the commander-in-chief is waging a “war on all women.”

As she enunciated every bad word she could think of for Trump’s “sexism and misogyny,” she bizarrely smiled: “Devalued” — smile. “Degraded” — smile. “Diminished” — smile.

Meanwhile, a dog voted, and his vote was counted in California. Allysia Finley has the story—and its implications.

Obviously, Ms. Newsom wasn’t the only Dem on Hate Trump duty this weekend. SNL was also at its post (via the Daily Caller):

The live audience of Saturday Night Live loudly applauded a joke about the possibility of President Donald Trump being assassinated while attending a musical.

Trump attended the opening night of “Chicago” Tuesday at the Kennedy Center with First Lady Melania Trump, where he was “mostly cheered,” according to the Associated Press. SNL’s “Weekend Update” host Michael Che made an apparent reference to President Abraham Lincoln, who was assassinated during a performance at Ford’s Theater in 1865.

Lincoln was assassinated on Good Friday, which makes the “joke” even more unfunny. 

It appeared during oral arguments last week that the Supreme Court was not likely to rule in favor of President Trump’s Executive Order on birthright citizenship. Townhall’s Kurt Schlichter is readying his troops. “Don’t Freak Out When We Lose the Birthright Citizenship Case,” he advises.

George Washington University Law Professor and Fox Contributor Jonathan Turley, also sympathetic to limits on birthright citizenship, argues that we must “reclaim” our own birthright, even if it means a constitutional amendment:

We are becoming a virtual mockery as we watch millions game the birthright citizenship system. China alone has hundreds of tourism firms that have made fortunes in arranging for Chinese citizens to come to U.S. territory to give birth and then return home.

No republic can last without controlling its borders and the qualifications for citizenship. We have allowed U.S. citizenship to become a mere commodity for the most affluent or unscrupulous among us.

The combination of open borders and open-ended citizenship is an existential threat to this Republic. 

“Bailing Out Chicago Would Send a Dangerous Message” is the headline on a City Journal story by Thomas Savidge. Bailing out Chicago? Savidge writes:

At its core, Chicago’s fiscal problems are straightforward. For decades, the city has committed itself to unsustainable spending levels. While its ridership is declining, the Chicago Transit Authority (CTA) is flush with funds thanks to sales tax and driver fees. Chicago Public Schools (CPS) expenditures keep growing despite declining student enrollment. In addition to structural budget deficits, Chicago has some of the nation’s largest unfunded pension liabilities.

Meantime, residents are fleeing both Chicago and the State of Illinois….

The only constructive way forward is for federal officials to make an explicit warning against bailouts. When fiscally mismanaged states and cities see that Washington won’t enable their behavior, they may finally make the necessary and painful adjustments to restore fiscal solvency.

How Chicago manages its fiscal situation going forward will tell us a lot—both about the city’s financial future and about Washington’s response.

“Even Southern States Should Worry About Migration to Florida” is the headline on a WSJ op-ed. Florida attracts families because of school choice. The author suggests that other southern states should beef up their school choice policies to keep up with Florida.

More Education News. The Washington Post reports on a great development:  

An upstart college entrance exam — designed to be an alternative to the ACT and SAT and featuring works from ancient Western civilization — is gaining support from the Trump administration and conservatives in red and purple states.

“We’ve had some big wins,” said Jeremy Tate, founder of the test and the Maryland company behind it, Classic Learning Initiatives.

While all three tests have verbal and math sections, the CLT stands out because it mainly features passages from noted philosophers, religious scholars, scientists and authors in the canon of Western literature, including Plato, St. Augustine, Dante and Shakespeare. Students can take the test at a traditional testing site or online at home.

One of King Charles’ titles is “Defender of the Faith” (first conferred by a Pope but then by Parliament after the Pope revoked it). Some U.K. Christians are angry that the King, having delivered himself of Ramadan and Eid statements, declined to deliver an Easter message. Ms. Must’s Easter message is that she hopes you had a beautiful Easter Sunday.

Was that so hard, Your Majesty?  

Senate’s Last Minute Shutdown Deal. Hormuz Irony: Not Good for Greenies. “No Kings” Protest Seen as “Bad Therapy Session.” The Conversation Women Don’t Need. And More

Posted on by Charlotte Hays

Who blinked?

Well, of course. You don’t need a cheat sheet to get that right: “DHS Shutdown Breakthrough Comes at Cost for Republicans as Funding Fights Nears End” is the Fox Digital headline. Republicans “ceded ground” to advance a last-minute deal last night to end the partial government shutdown. Here’s the deal:

The Senate unanimously advanced a deal to reopen most of the Department of Homeland Security (DHS) in the wee hours of Friday morning, 42 days into the shutdown that was spurred by the Trump administration’s immigration operations in Minnesota.

It was an agreement that largely gave Schumer and Senate Democrats what they wanted — no funding for Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) and parts of Customs and Border Protection (CBP). But it lacked the stringent reforms they desired, like requiring judicial warrants or requiring agents to unmask.

Even with their fragile majority, the GOP apparently is no match for Dem ruthlessness or unity (pick one). The Senate deal came shortly before President Trump vowed on Truth Social to sign an Executive Order to immediately pay TSA officers: “Because the Democrats have recklessly created a true National Crisis, I am using my authorities under the Law to protect our Great Country,” Trump wrote. Not sure how the proposed EO affects or is affected by the Senate deal, which the House must pass before it goes to President Trump. The New York Post emphasizes that Dems didn’t get everything they wanted.

“Hamlet of the Hormuz.” That’s the clever headline on a London Spectator email. It alludes to President Trump’s announcement of a 10-day pause before striking at Iran’s vital energy infrastructure on Kharg Island. I love the email headline but President Trump as Hamlet? Nope. The Washington Post’s Marc Thiessen further rejects the Hamlet notion:

Speculation is flying that President Donald Trump, buffeted by rising gas prices and domestic political concerns, is desperate for an off-ramp and looking for a deal with Iran to end the war. These leaks, whispers and rumors are wrong. While others may be panicking, I know from well-placed sources that Trump has never been more determined to see this military campaign through to completion.

Nearly four weeks into Operation Epic Fury, the president is on the cusp of achieving all of the military objectives he has set — but he understands that none of them are yet fully complete. We are at the enemy’s 20-yard line, but the final yards are always the hardest. All the easy targets have been hit. What’s left are the most hidden, hardened and complex challenges.

A Wall Street Journal editorial urges President Trump not to go wobbly, arguing that stopping now would be “an incomplete victory.” Greens are proposing that the energy crisis created by the blocking of the Strait of Hormuz make the case for renewable energy. Au contraire, counter two intriguing articles.

“‘Renewable’ Energy Gives Us a Crisis” is a Wall Street Journal op-ed headline. Brenda Shaffer argues that the West handed Iran leverage by deluding itself that it could wean itself of fossil fuel:

Europe’s reliance on expensive and unreliable renewable power has already begun to deindustrialize parts of the Continent. The U.K. and Germany are experiencing economic challenges as high electricity costs diminish industrial competitiveness.

To restore global energy security, the U.S. and its allies must see the problem as a national-security imperative. The Trump administration should require that the World Bank and the G-7 unleash energy production in the developing world through restoration of public finance. Washington and its allies need to uphold freedom of navigation of the world’s seas and not wait until a crisis to address a threat.

Europe needs to face reality. Adding large amounts of renewable energy produced higher prices, less reliable grids, and more dependence on China.

Writing at City Journal (“Energy Lessons of the Strait of Hormuz Standoff”), Mark P. Mills proposed that the Hormuz standoff could spell the doom of “quit oil” policies once and for all. History buffs will enjoy Mills’ opening with the seventeenth century Battle of Hormuz, and energy realists will enjoy his conclusions.

So, is the rump regime of Iran living on fumes? The Gatestone Institute writes about “Iran’s Fantasy of Strength: When Bazaar Tactics Collide with Reality.” You know a regime is not at full-strength when you have to remove your negotiators from the kill list.  Meanwhile, an Iranian General warns that U.S. tourists will no longer be safe broad, and the Pentagon is considering more troops to the Middle East.

Tomorrow is the big “No Kings” protest. Have at it. It’s a free country. And you’ll feel heard. And that’s really the point according to a Wall Street Journal op-ed by New York and DC psychotherapist Jonthan Alpert (“‘No Kings’: Politics as Bad Group Therapy”):

In my work as a psychotherapist, I’ve seen a parallel change in how people interpret their personal lives. Feelings are increasingly treated not as signals to examine but as conclusions to affirm. Discomfort is no longer something to work through but something to explain—often by projecting blame onto an external source. This mindset doesn’t stay in the therapy room. It has begun to shape political life, and the No Kings rallies offer a framework that favors affirmation over scrutiny: a clean moral narrative in which there are those who are wronged, and those responsible for the wrongdoing.

At their core, the rallies resemble bad group therapy—gatherings that offer validation, solidarity and emotional release. They feel good in the moment. Participants vent, find reinforcement among like-minded people, and leave feeling heard and aligned. The experience can seem productive, even clarifying. But like bad group therapy, it stops at validation. …

The composition of these rallies helps explain part of their dynamic. According to a survey conducted at a No Kings rally in the District of Columbia, attendees skew heavily toward highly educated, left-leaning white women in their 40s. This demographic stands at the forefront of the broader shift toward therapeutic language, in which emotional experience is elevated, validated and often treated as a kind of truth in itself.

“No Learning Please, We’re Democrats!” is the headline on Ruy Texiera’s latest Substack piece.  Texiera argues that his party has learned little from their 2024 defeat. Here’s an example:

The culture problem. This is a big one. The yawning gap between the cultural views of the Democratic Party, dominated by liberal professionals, and those of the median working class voter is screamingly obvious. One approach to this problem would be to actually change some of the Democratic Party positions that are so alienating to those voters.

Nah! That would be way too simple plus would create fights within our coalition plus…we’re on the right side of history aren’t we so why the hell would we change our correct, righteous positions? 

One issue on which top tier lefties are intransigent is guys competing in women’s sports. But it’s a loser. Even the International Olympic Committee just decreed that males will no longer be allowed to beat the heck out of women (not the IOC’s exact wording). The lefty Guardian shed tear.

In “The Conversation About Women That We Don’t Need To Have” Carrie Lukas takes us to a Heritage Foundation panel. Conservative women were discussing women’s roles and how to encourage and support young mothers. It appears to have been a fruitful discussion until:

Yet this panel not only wanted to explore ways to nurture a more family-friendly society, but to get government involved in subsidizing traditional families – with a working father and stay-at-home mother caring for children – specifically. There was a desire not just to end government programs penalizing marriage or undermining one-income families, but to push the pendulum toward the opposite.

For example, the panel considered whether it was time to talk about a system where men (yes, specifically men) who were breadwinners for a wife and children should be paid more than other workers, in order to uplift and encourage the creation of that traditional family structure. … The United States should not consider policies that would discriminate in favor of men with wives and children, and entitle them to more support or higher pay because of that status.

Seizing Kharg Island? College Newspaper Apologizes for Correctly Calling Murder Suspect Illegal. Kimmel Sneers: Markwayne Mullins Is a … Plumber. More

Posted on by Charlotte Hays

President Trump “wants a speedy end” to the Iran War, but Iran maintains it has no plans for negotiations with the U.S. Hmm. Could it be that Iran—which just lost naval chief who was responsible for closing the Strait of Hormuz—is being a bit unrealistic?

The legacy media in the U.S. isn’t going to explore that notion. However, Allister Heath, the U.K. Telegraph columnist does, writing that Trump hatred is so pervasive among members of the “expert” class that they are underestimating U.S. achievements.

AEI’s Danielle Pletka talks to retired four-star General Jack Keane about President Trump’s endgame in Iran. “They would have to surrender to us in major concessions all the things that we are physically taking away from them to include keeping the Strait of Hormuz open,” General Keane tells Pletka. Meanwhile, Israeli General Yoav Gallant’s Free Press headline is “How to Finish the Job in Iran.” Gallant’s argument:

Iran must be compelled to accept conditions that end its nuclear threat and regional aggression. The way to do that is to seize its greatest choke point: Kharg Island.

Two overlooked angles in the Iran war. Sadanand Dhume writes that the overthrow of the mullah regime in Iran would have a beneficial ripple effect on Muslims worldwide, while Matthew Koenig argues with a U.S. win in Iran could spell the end of rogue states.

“Juries Take the Lead in the Push for Child Online Safety” is the New York Times headline on a story about two expensive verdicts that went against social media giants:  

In Los Angeles on Wednesday, a jury decided in favor of a plaintiff who had claimed that Meta and YouTube hooked her with addictive features — a verdict validating a novel legal strategy holding the companies accountable for personal injury. And a day earlier in New Mexico, a jury found Meta liable for violating state law by failing to safeguard users of its apps from child predators.

“Big Tech Invincibility Is Over,” says a New York Post headline, while a Wall Street Journal editorial (“The Social-Media Shakedown Begins”) harumphs:

A Los Angeles jury on Wednesday held Meta Platforms and Google’s YouTube liable for a 20-year-old woman’s personal troubles. The schadenfreude will be overwhelming—nail the billionaires! But using a novel product liability theory to shake down companies won’t help young people and isn’t a good way to make law.

You really can’t beat Politico’s elegiac description of Congress not doing its job:

An overwhelming sense of frustration and despair has overtaken Congress as lawmakers try to clinch a deal to end a nearly six-week shutdown of the Department of Homeland Security as a previously scheduled holiday recess looms.

An overwhelming sense of frustration looms over Congress, the Congress that won’t end the partial shutdown of the Department of Homeland Security (here and here)? The shutdown that leaves us all vulnerable and TSA agents unpaid? That Congress?  

There are some people who are trying to help out at our airports. They are called ICE agents. But ICE agents may be the only federal employees the top tier of the left despises (D.C.’s Washingtonian magazine even tells you how to contribute to nonprofits to aid fired federal bureaucrats, who are likeable to the genteel left!).

In a column headlined “The Dems Propaganda of Constant Lies Are Getting Americans Killed” Miranda Devine writes about the “false narratives” that are getting people killed, including attacks on ICE agents:

We see how it works this week as the mendacious trio of Connecticut Democrat Sen. Richard Blumenthal, House Minority Leader Hakeem Jeffries and Senate counterpart Chuck Schumer claimed in unison that ICE agents helping ease TSA lines at airports this week will “brutalize and kill” you and kidnap your children.

In fact, ICE agents are kindly giving stranded passengers bottles of water, helping with their luggage, and performing tasks that free up TSA workers who have just missed their third paycheck — thanks to the Democrats.

Unlike fired federal bureaucrats, who sat behind desks and had the power to dole out federal grants for, say, drag queen kabuki shows, ICE agents fall on the wrong side of the genteel left sympathy divide. And let’s face it—there’s a whiff of working class about ICE. Not like those sympathetic bureaucrats. New Jersey Governor Mikie Sherrill, meanwhile, “will not tolerate” ICE agents wearing masks in her state (they don’t wear masks in the safer airport environment).

Sheridan Gorman, a Chicago college student who allegedly was killed execution-style by an illegal alien, seems to have fallen on the wrong side of the sympathy divide, too. Regarding the murder, Sheridan’s college newspaper issued an apology—for correctly calling the alleged executioner an illegal immigrant. We’re all familiar with a Chicago pol’s “wrong place, wrong time” explanation for Sheridan’s death. Disgraced former Illinois Governor Rod Blagojevich, who spent time in prison with gangbangers, put forward the theory that the suspect was participating in a gang initiation.

Twofer. Unlike ICE agents and Sheridan Gorman, this person must have fallen on the correct side of somebody’s sympathy divide—he’s illegal and trans—or how else to explain a six-month sentence for the sexual assault of a 14-year-old boy in Manhattan? Well, it’s in Manhattan—that does help explain it.

Secretary of Homeland Security Markwayne Mullin falls on the other side of late-night snoot Jimmy Kimmel’s snobbery divide. I mean, my gawd, the man is a plumber:

“Trump’s got a whole new generation of thinkers lined up, including his newly confirmed secretary of Homeland Security, Markwayne ‘Chuck Mike Bruce Dave’ Melon — Mullin. Maybe melon’s better,” Kimmel said. “He’s the now former senator of Oklahoma. Before he was elected to the Senate, Markwayne Mullin was a low-level MMA fighter and a plumber. That’s right. We have a plumber protecting us from terrorism now. It worked for Super Mario. Why not Markwayne?”

After his father’s death, when Mullin was 20, the future Cabinet member turned his family’s small plumbing business into a multimillion-dollar concern. Here’s wish Kimmel a broken pipe and leaky faucets.

Adapting a line from the Kamala Harris campaign, columnist Karol Markowicz says, “We’re not going back.” “New York’s Hochul Drove Me to Florida — Now She’s Begging Me to Return. Not Happening” is the headline on a Fox Digital piece by Markowicz:

Hochul said some “patriotic” rich people have stepped up to help fill the state’s budget gap, and that, sure, it’s OK to write her a check. But if you really want to help, Hochul implored her wealthy supporters, “visit Palm Beach and see who you can bring back home, because our tax base has been eroded.”

Hochul sounded annoyed as she delivered that last line, as if it is the fault of her supporters — who are writing her checks to sustain her struggling state — that their wealthy friends have left for sunnier pastures.

Her comments were surprising because, well, Hochul played a large role in forcing those Palm Beachers out in the first place. In 2022, Hochul said, “Just jump on a bus and head down to Florida, where you belong, OK? Get out of town because you don’t represent our values.”

Hochul apparently is also getting cold feet about climate change mandates.

Ya Think? “‘You Lose Your Credibility’: Democrats Warn against Turning a Blind Eye to a Colleague’s Misconduct” is a Politico headline. The colleague is three-term Florida Rep. Sheila Cherfilus-McCormick, who faces federal criminal charges for alleged multimillion dollar fraud.

Savannah Guthrie gave an anguished interview with her old colleague Hoda Kotb about her mother’s disappearance:

“And to think of what she went through. I wake up every night in the middle of the night, every night,” she told Kotb. “And in the darkness, I imagine her terror. And it is unthinkable, but those thoughts demand to be thought. And I will not hide my face. But she needs to come home now.”  

Oopsie. Ms. Must got carried away with a headline yesterday. I promoted the Democrat who flipped a state legislature seat in Florida to the U.S. Congress in my headline. She is President Trump’s representative in the state legislature, not the U.S. House of Representatives. Speaker Johnson, please forgive me.

Iran Diplomacy. Guess Who’s Donald Trump’s New Congressperson? Jaw-dropping Response to Sheridan Gorman’s Death. Advice to Delta: Cut Another Perk. More

Posted on by Charlotte Hays

“The Fog of Diplomacy in Iran” is a Wall Street Journal editorial headline that perfectly captures the current moment. The editors write:

Diplomacy has reared its head in the Iran war, and both sides have their reasons. As the U.S. weighs taking the time and risk to reopen the Strait of Hormuz by force, the Iranian regime must weigh whether it can risk losing that trump card—and bearing attacks for however long the Hormuz action extends the war.

Mr. Trump’s incentive is to calm markets with news of diplomatic progress. The regime’s incentive is to deny, deny, deny and keep markets roiled. In that sense Mr. Trump won this bout, driving a steep decline in the price of oil on Monday. This is what he does—offer relief as the trading week begins and bring the pain as it ends. The new deadline to ward off escalation is Friday, when some 2,200 Marines are due to arrive in the region. …

But we trust [President Trump] knows that giving in to the regime now would leave an Iranian gun to the world’s head, a proven veto on energy flows. The world—read: China and Russia—might conclude he couldn’t tolerate the political pressure at home from high oil prices.

Who’s left alive to negotiate for Iran? Seems to be Iran’s foreign minister Abbas Araghchi. Or is it parliament speaker Mohammad-Bagher Ghalibaf, described as a “wannabe strongman”? Guess who’s “balking” at President Trump’s peace overtures to Iran? Saudi Arabia and the U.A.E., proving that it’s never a good idea to bomb your neighbors at the precise moment you need friends. Both are said to be “edging” towards joining the war against Iran.

It’s not just diplomacy that’s foggy. There is talk of “boots on the ground” to seize Kharg Island, while Army paratroopers are ordered to the Middle East. Oil prices were down and the market up early this morning—that can always change—as Iran signaled that “non-hostile” ships can pass through the Strait of Hormuz. Writing at The Free Press, Niall Ferguson was bracing for a recession yesterday because of Iran’s choking global energy supplies. Writing at the D.C. Examiner, David Harsani addresses the off-ramp we’ve been hearing so much about:

A popular talking point among left-wing punditry maintains that Trump is seeking an off-ramp for his allegedly unpopular and failed war that looks exactly like the Joint Comprehensive Plan of Action, the deal Obama struck with the mullahs years ago, which the president ripped up in 2018. That’s clearly untrue. …

The Obama deal, however, was worse than nothing because it gave the regime protection from Israeli strikes. The clerics could act with impunity, benefitting from sanctions relief — not to mention, more ransom payments from Democratic presidents — all the while funding their destabilizing proxy armies, building a ballistic shield, and shrinking the breakout time for large-scale enrichment and nuke weaponization to months or weeks.

Meanwhile, Ms. Must wonders if New York Times columnist Bret Stephens is being shunned at the watercooler for a column headlined “The War Is Going Better Than You Think.”

 Politics are foggy, too. “Are Republicans Trying to Lose the Midterms?” Daniel McCarthy asked yesterday at the London Spectator, and today a big story is that Democrats have flipped a Republican House seat in a special election in Florida—and yep, the district includes Mar-a-Lago:

Democrat Emily Gregory won the special election to represent a Florida state House district that includes President Donald Trump’s Mar-a-Lago home on Tuesday, according to Associated Press projections, a stunning upset that signals Democratic momentum ahead of the 2026 midterms.

Gregory, a first-time candidate and fitness business owner, defeated Jon Maples, a Republican endorsed by Trump and aligned with his policies. Mike Caruso, the Republican who vacated the seat to become Palm Beach County clerk and comptroller, won the district by 19 percentage points in 2024.

Gregory’s campaign focused more on local issues, such as education and the cost of living in Florida, than on the national political climate, despite running to represent the president’s home district.

President Trump and the RNC are eyeing Dallas as the site of an unusual midterm convention. The President is a genius at this sort of thing, but it’s hard to think that the war and price of groceries won’t be much more crucial than branding. The administration’s DEI wins might be extremely significant.

Speaking of DEI … UCLA was forced to cancel a debate among California’s gubernatorial candidates only 24 hours before it was set to start. Thank Heavens they had a good reason! Matt Vespa of Townhall reports:

You read the headline and expect a series of shocking news. I mean, a gubernatorial debate in California at the University of Southern California was canceled less than 24 hours before it was scheduled. Was it a bomb threat? We are under increased threat of terror attacks because of Operation Epic Fury. Were there any electrical problems? Nope. It was shut down for the most California reason ever: there were too many white people (via NYT).

James Freeman refers to the debate cancelation as “California’s Democratic Crack-Up.”

In protest of the partial government shutdown that is leaving TSA agents without paychecks, Delta Air Lines has suspended special perks for members of Congress. Reading the story, however, I don’t think Delta rescinded the main perk—that of avoiding getting in line with us plebs. Advice to Delta: that’s the one to halt.

But there’s an even more radical proposal than congresspersons standing in line that is being put forward in an editorial at the New York Post.  “How to Stop Politicians from Hijacking Americans’ Air Travel” is the very pleasing headline on a very pleasing suggestion:

America doesn’t have to suffer whenever Democrats — or Republicans — decide to hold airline passengers hostage with a government shutdown that inevitably leads to hours-long TSA lines.

One easy fix is to privatize airport security, as it  already is at multiple hubs.

If agents aren’t federal employees, they’ll still get paid during a government shutdown, so won’t skip shifts and produce those monster lines as much as five hours long.

“In Sanctuary Cities, American Lives Don’t Matter” is the headline on a piece by Brian Longergan in Chronicles. The article featured a picture of Sheridan Gorman, a Chicago student who was allegedly murdered by an illegal alien, and whose death was dismissed by a Chicago politician as Sheridan’s having been “in the wrong place, at the wrong time.”

The New York Post’s Kirsten Fleming comments on “the left’s jaw-dropping” response to Sheridan’s death:

If ever there was someone in the wrong place, it was the alleged murderer, Jose Medina-Medina. According to DHS, he is an illegal alien from Venezuela who (shocker) came in under President Joe Biden’s open borders in May 2023. That same year, he was picked up for shoplifting at Macy’s but never showed up for his court date.

Watergate was the noontide for American journalism. What might be dubbed Watergate II, however, has been scarcely reported by the lethargic legacy media. So, it was good to read The Federalist’s Margo Cleveland’s congressional testimony on former Special Prosecutor Jack Smith’s “lawfare team” that took a very special interest in President Trump.

“Welcome Back, Christopher Columbus,” writes Rich Lowry in response to the return of a battered statue of the explorer (“What Columbus pulled off was the equivalent, in today’s terms, of traveling to Mars in a jerry-rigged spacecraft”) to a place of honor in front of the Old Executive Office Building.

Ms. Must has been very snobbish about the new FX opus, “Love Story,” about JFK Jr. and Carolyn Bessette. But “The Prince of New York,” at City Journal makes a good case for story, reminding us of a glam time in New York, which now seems like a lost age, and arguing that JFK Jr. left a legacy.

Inspiring Story of the Day: “Corgi Leads Canine ‘Great Escape from Chinese Butcher’s Van.’” Don’t miss video of the 10-mile journey home led by the short-legged hero Corgi.

Somebody in Iran Leadership Still Alive to Negotiate. Never Startle a Gun-toting Illegal Alien. Code Pink Visits Cuba. Homeless Myths. And More   

Posted on by Charlotte Hays

Is Operation Epic Fury winding down?

President Trump announced that the U.S. is in secret talks with whoever currently represents Iran:

It took almost a month. [!!] But on the tarmac of Florida’s Palm Beach International Airport, Donald Trump abruptly announced that peace talks to end the conflict with Iran had begun.

“We have had very, very strong talks. We’ll see where they lead. We have points, major points of agreement – I would say almost all points of agreement,” the US president told reporters beside the steps of Air Force One.

The New York Times calls this turn of events an off ramp for President Trump (off ramps—good—except for when President Trump takes one).  The Times also noted that “Iranian officials” deny such talks. The Wall Street Journal refers to the latest development as President Trump’s “U turn” and takes the reader into the world of the secret negotiations. First hurdle: finding Iranians with whom to talk:

Egyptian intelligence officials managed to open a channel with Iran’s Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps—the paramilitary group that protects the Iranian regime and is the country’s most powerful security and political entity—and put forward a proposal to halt hostilities for five days to build confidence for a cease-fire, some of the officials said.

Iran’s Foreign Ministry (wherever did we find them?) denied talks are happening, leaving The Five’s Greg Gutfeld to summarize, “He said. Shia said.” The denial that talks are in progress led to a spike in oil prices.

Examiner Chief Political Correspondent Byron York explains why President Trump needs a short war. What would constitute a win? The Wall Street Journal’s Gerard Baker writes that the U.S. and Iran see this differently. “‘Not Losing’ Has Different Meanings for Iran and the U.S” is Baker’s headline this morning.

But was this war necessary? International affairs columnist Walter Russell Mead says “yes” in a column headlined “Hawks and Doves Got Iran Wrong:”

As the latest Gulf war intensifies and its economic consequences grow, two things seem clear. First, many Iran doves seriously underestimated the risks and costs of attempting to coexist with the regime. Second, many Iran hawks seriously underestimated the risks and costs of opposing Tehran’s drive for regional hegemony through military action. The result is a war that is more necessary than doves thought and harder to wage than hawks supposed….

Domestically, Democrats are mostly locked into opposing a war that many doves think the president could and should have avoided. A conviction among many grassroots Democrats that Donald Trump poses a greater threat to America than the surviving members of the Iranian mullahcracy strengthens that opposition. It also raises the costs for Democratic politicians seeking to rally around the flag against Iran. Internationally, allied recognition that American forces are defending a vital waterway on which their economies depend struggles with public distaste for the American president and doubts about his will and ability to win.

Mr. Trump has weathered many crises. The Iran war is the greatest—and gravest—challenge he has faced. 

New York Post cover: “I Messed Up.” Those three words are the “anguished cry” of the LaGuardia air traffic controller before the collision between a Canadian regional jet and a Port Authority fire truck that left two pilots dead and dozens injured. The Wall Street Journal has a minute breakdown of the events on the ground leading to the fatal crash. The pilots, who have been praised for their actions, have been identified.

I can’t find the clip of Dems calling ICE, now deployed to help unpaid TSA agents at airports, calling ICE agents every name in the book. But an unashamed Senator Edward Markey gives a fair example of it in his official statement on the confirmation of Senator Markwayne Mullin to serve as Secretary of DHS:

“The Trump administration has sent ICE thugs into our communities to terrorize innocent immigrants, raid homes without judicial warrants, separate families, and target protestors,” said Senator Markey. …

And with Trump unleashing ICE agents at our airports, we cannot risk another leader at DHS who will simply rubberstamp the illegal, brutal Trump agenda.

Given this kind of talk from elected officials, it should come as no surprise that unmasked ICE agents are being hounded at airports:

“Go back to your master, Donald Trump, go back to your master!” one woman shouted at agents across a baggage claim terminal at Newark International Airport, footage taken at the airport showed.

Other travelers were happy to have the ICE agents helping with long lines. Meanwhile, Daniel McCarthy called President Trump’s the deployment of ICE agents to airports “ingenious.

There’s a new rule: Never startle an illegal alien with a gun.

You might get killed and then it would be your own fault.

That seems to be what progressive Chicago Alderwoman Maria Hadden believes to be the cause of the death of Loyola University student Sheridan Gorman, 18, who was allegedly executed by an illegal alien:

A progressive Chicago Dem is taking a ton of heat for suggesting that a Loyola University Chicago student who was allegedly executed by an illegal migrant caused her own murder — and that she was “in the wrong place at the wrong time.”

Hadden said the deadly shooting appeared to be a case of Gorman being “in the wrong place at the wrong time, running into a person who had a gun,” in an interview with Fox 32 Chicago. …

“They might have unintentionally startled this person at the end of the pier,” she added. “We don’t believe there is cause for broader community concern.”

Powerline is also stunned by the “startled” illegal angle, nothing that there were reports that Sheridan Gorman’s alleged killer stalked her. The gunman, who had been caught and released at the border in the Biden administration, wore a mask.

Code Pink Visits Cuba. Glenn Reynolds observes:

The Code Pink crowd, stacked with upper-class white women, flew first class on a chartered jet, unselfconsciously issuing press statements from their extra-wide and cushy seats.

Ouch. The Free Press deliciously dubs them “Cuba’s Useless Idiots”  And then there are another group of the hopelessly deluded ….

“The Alternative Reality of Homelessness Policy,” by the great Heather Mac Donald in City Journal, catalogues the myths about homelessness that keep the homelessness game going. Mac Donald starts with New York Times reporter Emma Goldberg, who writes about how hard it is to spot the hopeless! Let’s dive in:

Fictions # 2 and 3 are closely related: Homelessness is an involuntary condition caused by a lack of housing, and “shelter resistance” is a myth invented by conservative critics of compassionate policy. 

The premise of nearly all homeless programs is that the homeless are helpless victims of economic circumstances. Invisible forces—capitalism, inequality, poverty, racism—have pushed them onto the streets; government’s failure to help them get off the streets keeps them there. When a journalist does report facts that cut against this narrative, he often fails to grasp their significance. 

So it is with Goldberg. The WARM team encounters its first “client” of the evening, a “fast talker,” as Goldberg calls her, named Kristina Uspenskai, standing on Second Avenue in Lower Manhattan. The workers leap from their van, “arms piled with blankets and jackets and food,” and race toward her, painfully eager to please. She quickly dispels the notion that WARM represents anything new: she has had frequent contact with other outreach teams, she says. True to form, she declines an appointment for free medical and psychiatric care: “I’m bad at keeping time. I’m bad at adulting.”

In closing, Bill McGurn reacts to President Trump’s remarks on former FBI head Robert Mueller’s death and the pervasive bile in public debate in “The Profane President Trump.” It remnds you of what your grandfather told you:

Vulgar language can be effective in a sharp response, but it dulls with overuse. And too often we disdain politeness as phony rather than respect it as the tribute that vice pays to virtue. Like schoolyard kids forced to shake hands after a nasty fight, Americans could use a healthy respect for good form, even at the risk of being hypocrites.

Nightmare at LaGuardia. Oil Price Drops as Trump Announces Bombing Delay. Good Hitler Analogy: Bunker Time for Iran Leaders? Late Mail-in Ballots. And More

Posted on by Charlotte Hays

Airport Nightmare is the lead story at the New York Post early this morning. A Canadian regional jet collided Sunday night with a Port Authority fire truck at New York’s LaGuardia Airport.

The pilot and copilot were killed and dozens injured after the nose of the plane was sheered off. LaGuardia will be closed until at least 2 pm today. Air traffic control audio has been obtained:

Air traffic control audio obtained by the outlet showed that the rescue truck had been cleared to cross Runway 4 at taxiway D — though the tower controller can be heard repeatedly yelling at “Truck 1” to stop before dispatching more ARFF units to the scene. 

The truck had been responding to a separate incident when the collision occurred, police said.

Air traffic controllers frantically ordered the truck to stop just moments before the smash.

Photos captured the ARFF truck completely mangled and toppled onto its side, as well as the obliterated front of the aircraft.

Our attention was already focused on turmoil at the nation’s airports as the Trump administration scrambled to deploy ICE agents at airports as lines mounted. The reason airport passenger lines are almost unbearable is the Department of Homeland Security shutdown that leaves TSA agents  unpaid.

An editorial in the Washington Post says that sending ICE agents to help at airports is not as good an idea as resolving the shutdown, while an editorial in the New York Post praises President Trump for “foiling Dems ICE insanity” with ICE agents at airports. DHS employees have worked unpaid for more than half the current fiscal year. “It’s Not Safe for Anyone’: A TSA Officer on Working Without Pay” at The Free Press states the obvious; it further argues that “Congress needs to fund frontline workers like me before there is a tragic security failure.” Here are some people who—weirdly—continue to receive paychecks.

President Trump announced on Truth Social that the U.S. will postpone strikes on Iran’s energy infrastructure and power plants pending talks with Tehran. Oil prices skidded and Dow futures jumped as a result.  Iran fired long range missiles at Diego Garcia (largest island in Chagos archipelago) 2,500 miles away, alarming Europe because of the range. 

We hear a lot about the U.S. lacking an off ramp in the Iran conflict. But maybe this is backwards? “Forget Trump’s Flailing — Iran’s the One without an Endgame” is a headline at Asia Times. (Thanks to RCP for spotting this.) The Asia Times:

Ayatollah Khamenei talked tough at the start of this war, threatening the US with a “strong punch.” A message, purportedly by his son and successor Mojtaba Khamenei, who has not been seen in public since his elevation, rejected any talk of de-escalation and avowed to bring the US and Israel to “their knees.” …

This sounds like bluster. Neither Israel nor the US nor even other countries in the region have suffered casualties and damage anywhere near that suffered by Iran, and unlike Iran, their leadership remains intact.

Meanwhile, Matthew Continetti is on about how President Trump hasn’t roused the pubic by communicating that American ideals and American interests are one. Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent tells NBC’s “Meet the Press” that the Iranian leadership already has reached the “Hitler’s bunker” stage, and Seth Cropsey writes at the WSJ that U.S. credibility is on the line in Iran and leaving the job incomplete would be catastrophic.

Just for the record, this isn’t the first time the Strait of Hormuz has bollixed international commerce. Empires have battled over it for centuries. Another narrow passage: A feature story in the Wall Street Journal describes Iranians fleeing the bombing through a narrow mountain pass to Turkey that has become “one of their few lifelines to the outside world.”

It Depends on What the Meaning of “Election” Is. The Supreme Court today is scheduled to consider the matter of late-arriving mail in ballots:

In a case with potentially major ramifications for the 2026 midterm elections and all federal elections going forward, the U.S. Supreme Court on Monday will consider a Republican Party bid to prevent states from counting mail-in ballots received after Election Day even if they were postmarked on or before.

Thirty states plus D.C. and several U.S. territories have laws allowing tabulation of some late-arriving ballots provided that they were timely cast and received within a specified post-election timeframe, according to the National Conference of State Legislatures.

The case before the justices centers on Mississippi’s acceptance of absentee ballots up to five days after Election Day so long as they were received by the Postal Service on or before.

The Republican National Committee, which brought the lawsuit, alleges the policy violates federal law establishing the Tuesday after the first Monday in November as the day for election of members of the House, Senate, and presidential electors, in specified years.

Republicans argue that the term “election” means both “ballot submission and receipt” and that Congress intended that it be completed on a single day.

Election day is set by federal law, a Wall Street Journal editorial observed a few days ago, asking if that doesn’t apply to absentee ballots too:

Absentee voting is occasionally a necessity, and in modest numbers it isn’t a difficulty, but widespread mail ballots and lax deadlines have introduced slack into the election system. Calling races in California can take nearly a month, and at some point control of Congress could depend on its dreadfully slow tallying.

Opposing that transformation of American elections doesn’t require buying into President Trump’s wildest fraud claims, and it needn’t be partisan, since Monday’s case pits the Republican Party against GOP-leaning Mississippi. If the Justices rule that federal law means the ballot box is shut on Election Day, it won’t fix all of this. But it would be a start.

More Election News. “California’s Trump Derangement May Elect Eric Swalwell [as Governor]” is the headline on Allysia Finley’s column this morning:

Gov. Gavin Newsom blames every problem under California’s sun, from wildfires to high energy prices, on President Trump—and he may be right in one respect. The neurologic antipathy that liberals feel toward Mr. Trump may supercede all other issues when they cast their ballots. Hatred is blinding.

If you think Mr. Trump is a mortal threat to the republic, vagrants shooting up at a neighborhood park seem less menacing. …

Trump derangement syndrome helps explain why Bay Area Rep. Eric Swalwell has become the favorite in the race to succeed Mr. Newsom this November. In California’s June 2 jungle primary, all candidates compete on the same ballot, and the top two finishers face off in November.

Former FBI Director Robert Mueller, who led the Trump-Russia investigation, which made him a hero among Trump-haters, has died.  A piece in the Wall Street Journal praises many aspects of Mueller’s distinguished career, but has an elegiac ending:

The Russian collusion fiasco was one of the great political frauds in U.S. history. It’s a shame Mueller’s long record of service was marred by ill-judged decisions made in this era of acrimony and confusion.

It’s easy to understand why President Trump could loath Robert Mueller. But …. “Stay Classy, Don” is National Review’s Jeffrey Blehar’s take on the President’s (in my opinion) unfortunate remark on Mueller’s death:

I am less concerned with Donald Trump’s manifest incapacity for grace than with those who reflexively adopt it as their new moral philosophy as well. MAGA once defended Trump’s intemperate bleats by saying, “Well, he may be crass and vicious and degrade the overall discourse, but I support what he’s doing.” That was actually a reasonably defensible logic. But over time — inevitably with extended exposure, perhaps — that logic has been replaced by imitative affect: Trump is vulgar and petty, his top lieutenants are vulgar and petty: Let’s all be vulgar and petty now.

Former intelligence official Joe Kent, who very publicly resigned, is very much alive. So, no problem, as the kids say,  with Rich Lowry’s “Joe Kent Is a Loon.”