Politics Archives

Pelosi’s Made Man. Finally: Help for Illegal Aliens Trapped in Wrong Body. TFP: Don’t Forget the (Truly) Oppressed People of Iran. Usual Suspects: Hochul, Mamdani. More

Posted on April 16, 2026April 16, 2026 by Charlotte Hays

Before erstwhile bon vivant Eric Swalwell is permanently disappeared, Miranda Devine’s “All the Queen’s Men” this morning is required reading.

You know who the Queen is—America’s favorite little ol’ stock picker. Devine writes:

Eric Swalwell was Nancy Pelosi’s made man, the golden child of San Francisco’s rotten machine politics.

Today he’s roadkill, his name erased from the sign outside his congressional office, vultures feasting on his remains.

Swalwell’s clinical political eradication this week tells you everything about the Democratic Party and how ruthlessly and efficiently they will move to keep to power in the state they have controlled for 15 years and run into the ground.

More Swalwell-related Assigned Reading: “The Male Feminism Con Job,” by Christian Schneider at National Review. Subtitle: “The loudest voices claiming to support women often belong to the worst men.”

Because so many Dems are running for Governor of California, Swalwell’s curiously well-timed exit gives a boost to the Democratic field. Billionaire Tom Steyer moves up, apparently replacing Republican Steve Hilton as frontrunner. Mr. Steyer has a ready-made fan base (dare I say constituency?): illegal aliens. Steyer has released a plan that could jail ICE agents, whom he calls designated members of a violent extremist group. DHS Secretary Markwayne Mullin “pushed back” on Steyer’s agenda on the Ingraham Angle.

For homeless illegal aliens trapped in the wrong (though still illegal) body, California apparently quietly offers what every homeless person needs most: “gender affirming” care. Chris Rufo and Jonathan Choe tell this uplifting story at City Journal:

We discovered not only that the shelters were housing illegal immigrants but also that they were apparently housing a population of male-to-female “transgender” illegal aliens, who had hoped to obtain “gender-affirming care.” And, to our shock, state and local governments apparently are providing it….

Among the shelter’s residents was a group of Hondurans who identified as transgender. During our visit to MSC-South, whose executive director did not respond to a request for comment, we spoke with two Honduran men, “Lyca” and “Alondra,” who identified as transgender women. Both indicated that the local government gave them shelter and food….

Lyca, who wore long hair and red lipstick, was candid about this arrangement. He confirmed that he was an illegal immigrant and that the shelter doesn’t ask questions about immigration status. “Tengo Medi-Cal,” he said, referring to the state health-care program, which, under Governor Gavin Newsom, began providing “full scope” coverage to illegal aliens, which includes transgender procedures, or “gender affirming care.” He said he was receiving cross-sex hormone therapy—and bore the physical signs of having done so.

Hot Air elaborates on the City Journal scoop. Whatever body you’re currently inhabiting, your restaurant options in California are shrinking thanks to the state’s new $30 an hour minimum wage.

Gulp. “Will Samuel Alito Retire? Trump Mulls His Supreme Court Legacy” is a USA TODAY headline. CNN has President Trump “leaning in” on the idea of replacing Justices Alito and Thomas. CNN bases its story on the president’s call-in to Maria Bartiromo’s show. Justice Thomas has an op-ed today in the Wall Street Journal. It’s headlined “Progressives vs. the Declaration.” Subtitle: “Woodrow Wilson’s ideas are opposed to the basic American creed. They can’t coexist forever.”

More Supreme Court News: Very genteel of Justice Sotomayor to apologize to Justice Kavanaugh for disparaging remarks she made about him. She called her words “inappropriate” and “hurtful.”

Unless you’re dependent on the New York Times (try this pathetic story of a reality-challenged President Trump), you probably know that the U.S. Navy blockade of the Strait of Hormuz looks to be a winner. “Iran’s War-Shattered Economy Means It Has an Urgent Reason to Negotiate” is a Wall Street Journal headline.

The Free Press’s Eli Lake has advice for President Trump: “Trump Should Negotiate for Iranian Freedom, Not Just Nuclear Promises.” The president, argues Lake, is presented with “an opportunity to negotiate for the Iranian people, not just for a narrow deal with the regime on weapons.” Meanwhile, the Iranian leaders—again, whoever they are at this point—want a ceasefire in Lebanon. A Wall Street Journal editorial cautions:

As we trend toward a cease-fire in Lebanon, it’s fair to ask who benefits. The narrative that Israeli fighting against Hezbollah terrorists obstructs U.S.-Iran diplomacy gets it backward. Israel is giving the U.S. leverage….

Iran now needs to bail out Hezbollah, which is taking substantial losses. Israel is mere days from achieving full operational control of Bint Jbeil, the “capital of the Resistance,” as Iran’s anti-Israel terrorist axis styles itself.

Iran’s need for a cease-fire in Lebanon isn’t America’s. …

What is Lebanon prepared to do for a cease-fire? Rather than pledge more talks, it could outlaw the Hezbollah terrorists’ political party.

New York Governor Kathy Hochul’s approach to taxes is highlighted on the New York Post cover this morning. Hochul has flip-flopped from “No New Taxes” (January) to “No, New Taxes!” today. There’s a Mamdani angle:

Gov. Kathy Hochul was dragged by critics for her sudden pied-à-terre tax push — including for backtracking on her no new taxes pledge — as Mayor Zohran Mamdani and his lefty allies cheerfully took credit Wednesday.

Hochul — who for months has been hounded by chants of “tax the rich” from Mamdani’s Democratic Socialists of America comrades — said she now wants to slap a levy on multi-million dollar secondary homes in the city.

“Kathy Hochul’s ‘No Tax Hike’ promise has expired faster than the families fleeing New York’s affordability crisis,” said Nassau County Executive Bruce Blakeman, the Republican candidate facing off against Hochul as she seeks re-election this year.

Ms. Must has been reading about Hasan Piker. The New York Times published a Hasan Piker profile recently with the headline “Hasan Piker Is Not the Enemy.” But then the Gray Lady quickly changed the headline:

Hours later, possibly disturbed by having defended a pro-murder Mao Zedong wannabe in its pages, the paper changed the headline to the equally ill-advised “This Is Why There’s No Liberal Joe Rogan.”

You idiots, Joe Rogan is a liberal — a vocal supporter of socialist Sen. Bernie Sanders (I-Vt.).

[Piker] dismissed the sexual assaults of Oct. 7 with the remark that “it doesn’t matter if effing rapes happened” — Israel’s response is still unjustified.

He has referred to his critics as “ultra-Zionist pigs” and “Israel-first monsters.”

Yet Piker, who is somehow a more cartoonish version of even the laziest caricature of champagne socialism, remains welcome in Democratic circles.

Democratic candidates court his endorsement.

We’re a long way from Bill Clinton’s performative appeal to the center with his famous Sister Souljah moment.

“The Five” discussed Piker a few days ago. Laura Ingraham discussed Piker’s seeming demand for civil war last night. Speaking of the Civil War, not all such wars are socially acceptable:

Virginia Gov. Abigail Spanberger (D) on Monday signed into law a bill eliminating tax exemptions for multiple organizations connected to the Confederacy.

Democrats in the Virginia House and Senate passed HB167 with vote totals of 62-35 and 21-17, respectively, earlier this year. The bill specifically removes the Virginia Division of the United Daughters of the Confederacy (UDC) and the Confederate Memorial Literary Society, among other similar groups, from the list of organizations exempt from state property taxes.

Last time I checked, the American Civil War was more than 150 years ago. But it’s never too late to punish elderly ladies whose chief delight is putting flowers on the graves of soldiers (on both sides of the war).

Financial writer James Grant celebrates the “Men Who Bankrolled America” in a must-read Free Press Offering. They are Robert Morris and George F. Baker:

Morris and Baker were rich, bold, indomitable, enterprising, self-made, proficient, cool in a crisis, and incapable of despair. Each was an unshakable optimist on the American future.

Thinking Hassan Piker has a different kind of backer in mind?

Eric Who? Rats Desert Rat. Guess What Day It Is? Anathema! Rich Lowry Tells Leo to ‘Brush Up’ on Bible. Blockade Is Working. Judge Boasberg Ordered to Stop in Midair. More

Posted on April 15, 2026April 15, 2026 by Charlotte Hays

It’s an old-fashioned made for the tabs scandal—and sure enough, there’s Eric Swalwell’s unsmiling face peering at us from the cover of the New York Post. Screamer headline: “Monster in the House.”

In addition to previous allegations of sexual misconduct, a new accuser has come forward to say that Swalwell, who resigned his seat in Congress yesterday, raped her in a West Hollywood hotel room in 2018. She said she believed she was drugged.

You know who had absolutely no idea that the randy Rep. might have a problem? Well, of course, his bestie and Capitol Hill roomie and wingman—think Batman and Robin or Ted Kennedy and Chris Dodd. Arizona Rep. Ruben Gallego, who was chairman of Swalwell’s 2020 presidential campaign, had heard rumors that Swalwell was “flirty,” but that’s all. Gallego’s judgment was “clouded” because Swalwell “lied” and “betrayed” him.

Yes, you could send a picture of your penis to a young woman very quietly (as “Flirty” is accused of having done), but the Washington Free Beacon challenges Gallego’s claim in a story headlined “On Ruben Gallego, We Told You So.” The Beacon recounts its successful battle to unseal Gallego’s divorce papers (the chivalrous solon was divorcing his heavily pregnant wife) and concludes with an ominous boast:

Gallego is either one of the few people on Capitol Hill who hadn’t gotten wind of Swalwell’s misdeeds or an enabler and participant in them, and either scenario is a non-starter for a serious presidential contender. It is worth bearing in mind that the Democratic establishment shivved Swalwell when he became a liability in a crowded primary. When Gallego’s turn in the barrel comes and the press touts the power of “investigative reporting,” well, you heard it here first.

Meanwhile, a wealthy erstwhile backer of Swalwell now says, “Eric who?” Poor Flirty. How the mighty have fallen. “Uber leftie celebs are always willing to back a sleaze like Eric Swalwell—so long as he hates Trump as much as they do,” writes Kirsten Fleming. How many of them are now saying, “Eric who?” Swalwell’s own former Chief of Staff said something similar. But before giving the rats props, consider this London Spectator headline: “Swalwell’s Electoral Math not Morality.” You might also enjoy Eddie Scarry’s Federalist piece headlined “Democrats Turned On Eric Swalwell Because He Was In The Way, Not Because They Have Morals.”

Goodness! I got so caught up in the Swalwell fall that I momentarily forgot what day it is! “Happy Tax Day, America. You’re (Still) Being Robbed” is USA TODAY columnist Nicole Russell’s headline. Russell writes:

Even with recent tax changes under President Donald Trump‘s One Big Beautiful Bill Act, Americans are still paying too much. The federal government collected $5.23 trillion in fiscal year 2025, according to the Cato Institute.

Happy Tax Day. Americans are still paying too much in taxes.

Trump’s One Big Beautiful Bill Act did cut taxes. It made his 2017 tax cuts permanent and, on average, saved working families about $1,300 instead of hitting them with a $1,700 increase.

An editorial in the Wall Street Journal (“The Growing State Tax and Jobs Divide”) explores how job growth has changed in the high-tax and low-tax states. ”Democrats want to pretend that taxes don’t matter, but these numbers don’t lie,” the Editors conclude. Vice President Vance’s anti-fraud task force has suspended 447 hospices and 23 home health agencies suspected of fraud in Los Angeles, with a total fraud estimate of more than $600 million. Anti-fraud prosecutions might be another way of saving money for the American taxpayer.

The Hormuz blockade seems to be going well. A U.S. Navy destroyer intercepted two tankers trying to leave Iran and ordered them back. An editorial in the Wall Street Journal is headlined “Trump’s Blockade Is a Crisis for Iran”:

Iran’s regime has tried to make this war all about economics, and now it is getting its wish. Since Monday the U.S. Navy has quarantined Iranian ports, blocking ships from entering or exiting the Strait of Hormuz for the purpose of commerce with Iran. The economic damage to the regime is immediate, and the pain will grow the longer the blockade is sustained….

The best estimates we have are from the Foundation for Defense of Democracies’ Miad Maleki, who led the U.S. Treasury’s sanctions campaign against Iran until last year. He writes that the blockade is expected to wipe out $435 million in Iranian economic activity a day and force oil-field shut-ins within two weeks….

Iran’s entire economy will feel the collapse of oil exports. This includes the Revolutionary Guard, which siphons about half the revenue. Other export routes appear unable to compensate for the loss. How will Iran’s banks hold up?

The regime has tried to protect itself from its own people by cutting off the internet, crushing the digital economy with it. The destruction of Iran’s productive capacity, especially in steel and petrochemicals and industries that rely on them, also portends layoffs and a spike in inflation, even without the blockade.

Oh, and the regime’s latest budget calls for tax increases. This is not a pretty picture. The shame is that this pressure didn’t begin weeks ago.

The mainstream media presents the war as a disaster for the United States. Spiked’s Brendan O’Neill interviews former Trump official Fred Fleitz. The podcast is titled “Ignore the Doubters – Iran Is on Its Last Legs.” President Trump tells the New York Post that fresh negotiations with Iran could be imminent. But don’t think they’re any nicer.

Pope vs. President. Quarrels between popes and princes are nothing new. We don’t have a prince, but we have a president who is engaged in a spat with Pope Leo XIV. National Review’s Rich Lowry dares to urge Leo to “brush up on the Bible” (!) and “its lessons” about war and peace:

A pope who doesn’t rebuke a president of the United States for threatening to bring a foreign civilization to an end isn’t doing his job.

Yet it’s important to understand that the Bible is not an injunction for pacifism, and it doesn’t entail a condemnation of the Iran war.

The Bible has a realistic view of the inevitability of human conflict.

As Ecclesiastes says, there is “a time for war, and a time for peace.”

Father Gerald Murray, canon lawyer, priest of the Archdiocese of New York, and a popular commentator on the EWTN network, would handle the pontiff more gently. Still, Murray writes a piece headlined “The Catholic Case for War with Iran” at The Free Press. Subtitle: “The Church advocates peace, but it isn’t pacifist. Eliminating a nuclear threat from a determined enemy is a noble reason to make war.”

The Reverend Al Sharpton recently held his annual National Action Network convention—and they were all there! Kamala, Josh, JB, and others with 2028 aspirations. The Wall Street Journal’s Jason Riley asks, Why?

True, there was a time when Mr. Sharpton was a power broker in Democratic politics—someone who might not help you win but who could almost guarantee you’d lose if you didn’t pay his organization not to criticize you. These days, however, Mr. Sharpton is much closer to a charlatan than a kingmaker. His star has dimmed considerably, and even most black people aren’t buying what he’s selling….

It’s been clear for some time that the best way to address social inequality is economic growth. Black-white gaps in earnings shrank in the 1960s and 1980s when the economy was expanding, just as they were doing before Covid-19. What racial and ethnic minorities need most are tight labor markets, but racial activists spend most of their time searching for white scapegoats. Democratic voters deserved candidates who have figured this out.

Remember when federal Judge James Boasberg claimed he had the right to get planes deporting Venezuelan to turn around in midair? Well, now it’s Boasberg’s turn to reverse course. A federal court of appeals has ordered Boasberg to end his crusade to hold Trump administration officials in contempt for their part in enforcing immigration law.

Remembrance of Things Past. “New Documents Reveal Democrats’ Plot to Frame Trump with Ukraine Call” at The Federalist shows that we weren’t imagining things. PJ Media quotes Alan Dershowitz, suggesting that this impeachment could be expunged.

Blockaded: Strait of Hormuz. Not Blockaded: Congressional Exit for Swalwell and Gonzales. POTUS: I Was Supposed to Be Doc, Not Christ. Biden DOJ. Grocery ‘Marx Ups’ in NYC. More

Posted on April 14, 2026April 14, 2026 by Charlotte Hays

The U.S. naval blockade of the Strait of Hormuz is in effect, with President Trump warning the Iranian leaders—whoever they might be—to shoo:

“We can’t let a country blackmail or extort the world, because that’s what they’re doing,” President Donald Trump told reporters outside the Oval Office after the blockade took effect at 10 a.m. ET.

Asked if the goal of the obstruction is to force Iran to reopen the strait or come to the negotiating table, Trump said, “Both of those things, certainly, and more.”

Washington Post columnist Marc Thiessen celebrates what he considers the brilliance of the president’s latest move (“Trump Flips the Script in the Strait of Hormuz”):

The brilliance of this plan is hard to overstate: The blockade accomplishes virtually the same thing as would a military operation to seize Kharg Island (through which almost all of Iran’s oil passes) without the risks involved in deploying U.S. ground forces — effectively shutting down Iran’s oil exports and cutting off its energy revenue. That will place an economic stranglehold on Iran. The U.S. quarantine of Iran’s ports will cost Iran about $435 million a day in economic damage, according to an analysis by Miad Maleki, a former official with the Treasury Department’s Office of Foreign Assets Control….

Meanwhile, Trump is preparing for Phase II of his operation: a U.S.-led international escort mission. He is using the ceasefire to clear mines Iran laid (and then lost track of), allowing the U.S. Navy to establish a safe route through the waterway. Once this work is finished, Trump can give Iran’s leaders an ultimatum: If they do not reopen the strait to all shipping, then the U.S. will open it by military force — and allow passage of all commercial ships except those from Iran.

The Telegraph reports that a U.S.-sanctioned Chinese tanker has avoided the blockade, and two other sanctioned ships are transiting the pass through the Strait. It shouldn’t be a surprise that there will be a cat-and-mouse game in the Strait. Mark Toth and Jonathan Sweet propose in the New York Post that Hormuz blockade puts Iran’s military on the ropes.

Meanwhile, economist Larry Kudlow characterizes the current situation as “Trump Jiu-Jitsu Puts America in Control of Persian Gulf Oil Flow“:

According to sources, on-shore oil storage in Iran begins to top out in about 13 days. So that means the infrastructure shutting will cause permanent damage. Whether this economic obliteration will bring Iran back to the negotiating table remains to be seen.

There’s a couple of Iranian Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps crazies that seem to be leaders right now, Mojtaba Vehedi, and Mohammad-Bagher Ghalibaf.

The big question is how long will it take to starve them out?

Fox columnist Liz Peek makes the, alas, entirely plausible argument that the American Left hates Trump so much that an American defeat in Iran might be welcome.

And Now A Message from La La Land: Two writers for Foreign Affairs say that Iran needs “incentives, not just pressure.” Pollyanna, call your office.

It is a sign of our times that at a crucial juncture in the Iran war, we’re focused on a picture of President Trump that, to the naked eye, depicts Trump as Christ.

President Trump has responded that the offending picture was supposed to be of him as a doctor healing his people. Oh, good. Silly but hardly blasphemous, as several not ordinarily excitable writers (the Telegraph’s Charles Moore and George Weigel in the Washington Post) have unhesitatingly labeled the picture.

For good measure, President Trump lashed out at women’s sports protector Riley Gaines, a southern Protestant and supporter of Trump’s gender policies. Gaines had criticized the Christlike picture. President Trump’s doctor/Christ depiction controversy is adjacent to his lashing out at Pope Leo. Daniel McCarthy writes that “Trump’s spat with Pope Leo is a bad political bet as midterms loom.”

Not Able to Erect a Blockade. Reps. Eric Swalwell, D-Calif., and Tony Gonzales announced that they will resign from Congress after sexual misconduct allegations. Gonzales is accused of a sexual relationship with a staffer. With Swalwell, there are multiple accusations from multiple women. Turn About Is Fair Play: Guy Benson chronicles Swalwell’s righteous history:

In 2018, when his party was attempting to bring down Brett Kavanaugh’s Supreme Court nomination, the opportunistic and preening California representative and would-be presidential aspirant loudly adopted the party line. “100% #BelieveSurvivors,” he tweeted.

Referring to accusers as “survivors” bakes in the assumption that they are telling the truth and have survived what they’ve alleged. For many, that’s a fair assumption; for others, it’s not. The notion that “all women,” or all “survivors,” must always be believed was, and still is, dangerously absurd. Serious accusations should be taken seriously, investigated, and tested by evidence. But ‘Me Too’ sloganeering and dogmas were eagerly embraced by Swalwell et al.

A Politico story says that the “whisper network” finally caught up with Swalwell. Does it matter that Eric Swalwell is married? What do you think? Swalwell’s exit from the California governor’s race shakes things up—I would have thought it marginally helped Dems by eliminating one from a crowded field that threatened to give the prize to one of the rare Republicans. But Dems are still scrambling.

Also unable to erect a barricade against defeat, Hungary’s Viktor Orban is the subject of Walter Russell Mead’s Wall Street Journal column. I don’t think Vice President Vance, who regarded Orban as a bulwark, if you’ll pardon the expression, against EU bureaucracy, will like Mead’s column. Mead writes that Orban was always a “better entertainer than builder.”

We Weren’t Imagining Things After All. The Biden DOJ was really, really doing this:

The Department of Justice under former President Joe Biden “withheld evidence” and approved “aggressive arrest tactics” when targeting pro-life defendants — and then slapped them with longer prison sentences than pro-abortion ones, according to an explosive internal review released Tuesday.

The DOJ revealed the stunning abuses in a nearly 900-page report after examining more than 700,000 records related to the Biden administration’s prosecutions under the Freedom of Access to Clinic Entrances (FACE) Act.

There’s No Such Thing as a Free Grocery Store. The New York Post cover decries the “ridiculous Marx up” of New York Mayor Zoran Mamdani’s first free grocery store that will cost taxpayers a staggering $30 million.

“The Medical Establishment Is Tearing Itself Apart Over Youth Gender Surgeries” is the stunning headline on a Free Press story by Dr. Benjamin Ryan. Subtitle: “The American Medical Association said it supported restricting gender surgeries for minors. Then it said it didn’t. We still don’t know where it stands.” Meanwhile, in the same indispensable outlet, James Kirchick, historian of gay Washington, writes that a new “conversion therapy” is making gay kids trans.

“What is worse: murder or alleged racism?” Heather Mac Donald asks in the lead sentence of her new City Journal piece, “Illegal Immigrant Bludgeons Victim—Blame Trump.” Mac Donald describes a particularly brutal murder by a Haitian illegal alien. What happened next:

To the New York Times, the story and the scandal here is Trump’s Truth Social post, not the psychotic bludgeoning. Trump “has made disparaging comments about Haitian immigrants for years,” the paper informed its readers. The Times quickly introduces an immigrant rights activist to offer moral clarity.

“Guerline Jozef, the executive director of the immigrant rights nonprofit Haitian Bridge Alliance, said that the president’s comments were in line with his administration’s history of targeting Haitian people and spreading false narratives. ‘They don’t see the humanity of immigrants,’ she said.

Vintage Pink Hats on Vintage Heads. What Does the Left Mean by ‘Democracy’? Byron York on The Succession: Now There Are Two. Angel Father at Sanctuary City Hearing. More

Posted on March 30, 2026March 30, 2026 by Charlotte Hays

The “No Kings” protests drew record crowds Saturday across the U.S. and Europe (where there is still a smattering of kings). PBS continued:

Minnesota took center stage, with thousands of people standing shoulder-to-shoulder to celebrate resistance to Trump’s aggressive immigration enforcement.

Minnesota’s flagship event on the Capitol lawn in St. Paul drew Bruce Springsteen as its headliner. He and other speakers praised the state’s people for taking to the streets over the winter in opposition to a surge of U.S. Customs and Immigration Enforcement agents.

Springsteen performed ” Streets of Minneapolis,” the song he wrote in response to the fatal shootings of Renee Good and Alex Pretti by federal agents. Springsteen lamented Good and Pretti’s deaths but said the state’s pushback against ICE has given the rest of the country hope.

The protests turned violent in Portland, Dallas, and Los Angeles and took a bizarre turn near Mar-a-Lago:

A large mob of demonstrators waving Palestinian and other flags hurled cement blocks towards Department of Homeland Security agents in Los Angeles….

Outside Mar-A-Lago, in Palm Beach, Fla., female protesters lifted up their shirts Saturday as counterdemonstrators peppered them with insults including “w–re mongers” and “butch d–es.”

Trump haters like actor Robert De Niro and state Attorney General Letitia James were in attendance at the demonstrations.

A group of demonstrators waving red hammer and sickle flags chanted “there is only one solution communist revolution” outside Times Square.

USA TODAY’s Susan Page found the protests a “show of political force” and a “red flare” for President Trump. But Page didn’t hide the zany white lady aspect I observed in D.C:

“A divine entanglement of democracy,” Sarah Elizabeth Greer, 56, called it as she marched in Manhattan, pushing her two tiny dogs in a cart festooned with a pair of handwritten signs: “NO barKING” and “BITE the Power!”

Accessory of the day, as observed by Ms. Must at her nearby subway stop: a dingy, vintage pussy hat clamped on the steel grey head of a vintage female. The Federalist discerned in the “No Kings” gatherings “the sound of a tired old thing trying not to die.”

An editorial in the New York Post rightly labels the “kings” idea a conceit. The editors go on to contend that the left loves kings with a “D” after their names. “What Do Democrats Mean by ‘Democracy’?” is the headline on a Wall Street Journal op-ed by Bruce Gilley. Good question. Gilley writes:

Talk of a “transition to democracy” further belies the claim of democratic backsliding. Such a transition would require a reform faction within the Trump tyranny to emerge to bring it down. Yet nobody on the Democratic side is engaged in negotiations even with disaffected Republicans like Liz Cheney or a Bush scion. That they continue to work within the confines of traditional partisan politics suggests they don’t really believe their premise.

This leads to a troubling conclusion: What Democrats and leftist activists mean by a “transition to democracy” is a transition to permanent Democratic Party rule.

Gilley does not let Republicans entirely off the hook.

The Iran war is making even hawks nervous. President Trump is said to be weighing a military operation to go in and remove Iran’s uranium. Despite its decimated leadership, Iran boldly calls the U.S. 15-point plan “unreasonable.” Tehran loosened its grip on the Strait of Hormuz, allowing 20 oil tankers to go through it. The jitters over the market are intense but James Mackintosh argues in the Wall Street Journal that the market can endure the war. President Trump says U.S. could seize Kharg Island and take Iran’s oil but remains optimistic that a deal with Iran can be made soon. Israel doesn’t believe you can negotiate with Iran. Mark Penn comments on energy prices on X:

Obviously the Iran war and the disruption of Iran’s global terror network seems to have come down to fear of energy prices. Perhaps FDR’s famous line would now be “we have nothing to fear but fear of oil prices.”

So, let’s do the math. …

Meanwhile, North Korean is supplying weapons to Iran, and Israeli police, citing security concerns, refused to permit the Latin Patriarch of Jerusalem, Cardinal Pierbattista Pizzaballa to enter the Holy Sepulcher on Palm Sunday. Prime Minister Netanyahu intervened and restored access. Whatever the security worries, it was not a good look.

As you probably know, the House Republicans rejected the Senate deal to end the shutdown. Miranda Devine lets the “cowardly” Senate Republicans have it:

The worst offender last week was Senate Majority Leader John Thune, who hightailed it out of DC on Friday morning, hours after stitching up a duplicitous 2 a.m. deal to end the shutdown by caving to Democrat demands to defund ICE and border enforcement, at least for the time being.

Elements of the Department of Homeland Security were funded in the One Big Beautiful Bill Act last year, but Thune’s deal freezes out immigration enforcement and border security functions that are all-important as we go to war against the world’s largest sponsor of Islamic terrorism. He knew this would be unacceptable to the Republican base.

In one fell swoop, Thune ceded the moral high ground to Democrats who now can blame Republican intransigence for their shutdowns.

Similarly, The Federalist’s Brianna Lyman also proposed that Americans shouldn’t need the House to save mass deportations from weak Senate Republicans.

“More Right-Wingers Ban Trans Athletes ” is the headline on a Wall Street Journal editorial—but the “right wingers” are actually the not-right-wing International Olympic Committee:

Are Democrats ever going to wake up to reality on women’s sports? The International Olympic Committee said Thursday it is implementing a one-time genetic screening for the 2028 games, because competition can’t be fair—or even safe—if biological women are forced to face off against athletes born male.

To most people this sounds like common sense. In the U.S., however, many Democratic politicians still act as if transgender participation in women’s and girl’s sports has become a matter of public debate only because of right-wing paranoia. Well, the IOC isn’t exactly a MAGA convention.

The Conservative Political Action Conference has just closed in Dallas. Thanks to Examiner Chief Political Correspondent Byron York for telling us “What the CPAC straw poll says:”

Start off by saying the CPAC straw poll is wildly unscientific. There have been allegations of various types of skullduggery in the past. …

That said, the notable aspect of what happened is that last year, there was only one heir apparent for President Donald Trump among the attendees. This year, there are two.

The new poll is just one more indication that the rise of Marco Rubio has changed the face of the 2028 presidential race. As secretary of state, he has emerged as one of the stars of the new administration. He has defended American values abroad — as has Vance — but has not suffered from the widespread belief that he is uncomfortable with U.S. military interventions, as Vance has.

Meanwhile, “Democrats Have a Rahm Emanuel Problem,” according to Politico:

The 2028 Democratic presidential field — whether they realize it or not — has a Rahm Emanuel problem. His campaign is likely to be a rolling Sister Souljah moment for the Democratic Party’s left-leaning orthodoxy, particularly on social issues. His pugilism and his critique of the party’s leftward lurch will create a gauntlet his would-be rivals will have to navigate. And years in politics — plus countless hours on CNN — have helped him further hone his sharp-edged debate blade.

In “They Wouldn’t Even Say My Daughter’s Name,” Joe Abraham recounts his experience at a Senate hearing on sanctuary cities and the rule of law. Mr. Abraham is one of the tragically growing number of parents whose children were killed by illegal aliens. Her name was Katie.

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 March 27, 2026March 27, 2026 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 March 26, 2026March 26, 2026 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.