hormuz Archives

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.

Two Terrorist Attacks on American Soil. Supreme Leader Found! Strassel on Hormuz. Tish James’ Hill to Die On: Mutilating Kids. And More

Posted on March 13, 2026March 13, 2026 by Charlotte Hays

Well, today is Friday 13^th but the terrible luck came yesterday in two separate Islamic terrorist attacks on American soil.

The attack at Virginia’s Old Dominion University and came under the increasingly common rubric of crimes-committed-by-people-who-ought-to-have-been-behind-bars:

The FBI says it’s investigating a fatal Virginia university shooting as terrorism after a gunman, who served several years in prison for trying to support ISIS, killed one and injured two others on Thursday.

The suspect was identified as 36-year-old Mohamed Bailor Jalloh, a former Virginia National Guardsman who had pleaded guilty in October 2016 to attempting to provide material support to the terror group ISIS, Dominique Evans, special agent in charge of the FBI’s Norfolk Office, said during a news conference Thursday night. Jalloh was killed following the shooting at Old Dominion University, authorities said.

The shooter walked into a class at Constant Hall, which is part of the College of Business at Old Dominion, and asked if it was an ROTC class, a law enforcement source told CBS News. When someone responded that it was, the shooter opened fire, fatally injuring the class instructor, who was a retired Army officer.

Jalloh was sentenced to 11 years in prison in 2017 but was released early—right before Christmas in 2024. It didn’t take Jalloh long to attack. Who is responsible for his release? Why? A naturalized citizen, Jalloh could have been denaturalized and deported. He wasn’t. It’s all infuriating. The ROTC instructor killed has been identified as Lt. Col. Brandon Shah. Kudos to the ROTC students who subdued and killed the attacker. How Nuts Can You Be?: A Soros-backed DA blames Republican gun manufacturers for the Old Dominion tragedy.

The second attack yesterday was on Temple Israel in West Bloomfield Township, carried out by one Ayman Mohamad Ghazali, 41, and like Mohamed Jolloh, a naturalized U.S. citizen. Temple Israel was holding classes for children, and mercifully, there were no casualties. Questions abound here, too, particularly concerning the promiscuous granting of U.S. citizenship. As for the attacks, Bill Glahn of Powerline makes a point too obvious for some of our chic left pals:

I do want to make one point about alleged motive. We all know what the motive was.

Missing Persons Bureau. Iran’s Supreme Leader Jr. has at last been heard from but President Trump says he believes Iran’s new leader has been wounded. An editorial in the Wall Street Journal urges President Trump not to end the war prematurely. Douglas Murray makes a similar plea in the New York Post:

Some people in Washington want hostilities to cease immediately. Others want them to stop before the operation is complete.

Of course nobody wants this war to go on a day longer than necessary. But this job can’t be left half-finished.

After all, a future US president might not have the resolve to stop the Mullah’s and their ambitions. Some day we’ll get another Jimmy Carter or Joe Biden.

Trump rightly started this historic mission. And he’s the only person who will also be able to finish it. But on America’s terms.

The Strait of Hormuz, where a significant portion of the world’s global energy supply is chocked up, has had the undivided attention of the entire world. But Kimberley Strassel suggests this morning in her Wall Street Journal column that the Trump administration prepared the world for just this crisis (“Trump’s Energy Triumph”):

Let’s talk about plans. That the U.S. was finally in a position to disarm Iran is largely thanks to a plan Mr. Trump initiated in his first term—to gain energy independence, which his team is now turning into energy dominance. Trump policies turbocharged a shale revolution that made the U.S. a net exporter of petroleum products and the world’s largest exporter of natural gas. Alongside was Mr. Trump’s plan to foster economic and security ties in the region against shared threats like Iran via deals like the Abraham Accords.

We are no longer hostage to Middle East fossil-fuel threats, which gives us room to weather temporary Hormuz disruptions. Domestic gasoline prices have spiked but are still notably below their highs during Joe Biden’s term. Thanks to growing U.S. exports, our allies are better positioned against fallout. And Gulf actors are working alongside the U.S. to mitigate Iran’s blockade. Some of us remember “OPEC embargo” days. No more.

Four members of the U.S. military were killed in a refueling accident involving a plane in Iraq. Prominent Democrat David Boies contributes an op-ed entitled “Partisanship on Iran Is Dangerous for America” to the Wall Street Journal:

If we believe that Iran presents a serious threat, we need to support the president on this issue. There’s plenty to disagree with him about, and we don’t need to like or admire him. But on Iran we should be on common ground. Not primarily because we want to reduce partisanship in foreign affairs—although that is conceivable.

Not because the voters will reward us for a more measured response—although I hope they will. But because it is the right thing to do for our country, our children and the Democrat who will succeed Mr. Trump as president.

Senate Majority Leader John Thune says he simply doesn’t have the numbers to pass the SAVE America Act. “If Congress doesn’t pass the SAVE America Act, vote them out,” urges USA TODAY’s Nicolle Russell:

It’s so simple, I can’t believe it’s not the law already. It would require “in person” documentary proof of U.S. citizenship to register to vote in federal elections. Concerns that it would make voting difficult for married women or other groups of people, because documentation is hard to acquire, are overblown.

Voter ID standards aren’t even controversial in other countries.

Just Can’t Stop Mutilating Children: New York AG Letitia James has ordered New York hospitals to continue performing “gender-affirming” procedures on minors. An editorial in the New York Post challenges James’ stand as “just another ideological con job:”

In her latest bit of grandstanding, state Attorney General Letitia James ordered NYU Langone hospital to resume “gender-affirming care” for minors by March 11 — or else . . . what?

NYU Langone Health quite rightly called her bluff — right as a matter of law, and of basic decency….

James joined 19 other states in suing the Department of Health and Human Services, claiming that the feds overreached their authority — but the Social Security Act orders HHS to set standards of care for facilities participating in Medicare or Medicaid, which provide nearly half of all US hospital revenue.

The AG claims Langone must obey a New York state law that requires hospitals “to offer care without discrimination based on gender identity or expression.”

Call Vogue to do a spread. Did you know that the First Lady of New York is an artist?

The Washington Free Beacon has the scoop: “Zohran Mamdani’s Wife Provided Illustrations for Essay Whose Author Called Oct. 7 ‘Spectacular’ and Attacked ‘Jewish Supremacist Vampires’.” You’ll get to see some of First Lady Rama Duwaji’s drawings courtesy of the Free Beacon.

We Found a Christian! We Found a Christian! The Wall Street Journal’s excellent Barton Swaim examines Texas Senate hopeful “James Talarico’s Cost-Free Creed.” Swaim suggests, “Left-wing orthodoxy with a Christian gloss isn’t what religious voters are looking for.”

“British Culture Under Attack—by Its Curators” is the City Journal headline over a very discouraging story:

Bureaucrats and academics agree that rural areas must become effectively less English. DEFRA’s plans include outreach schemes to attract more Muslims to the countryside, recruiting more “diverse” staff, and producing marketing materials featuring ethnic minorities and written in “community languages.” British academics released a study on “rural racism,” suggesting that the countryside should offer more halal food and spaces for prayer (though presumably not in village churches).

Don’t count on that last bit about village churches.

I can’t pretend I’ve ever risen above gossip. So, the sec I finish this morning, I plan to read Politico’s story on how Washington hostess and consultant Juleanna Glover courted Jeffrey Epstein.

As a loyal daughter of a certain state, I am delighted to close with City Journal’s “The State that Says Yes,” the story of how a certain poor state—Mississippi—is becoming a model for American growth. I had to do it.

Control of Tiny Island Could Determine War. Khamenei Jr. Lacking in Charisma–but not Real Estate. Thune, Texas, ‘Talking Filibuster ‘& More

Posted on March 11, 2026March 11, 2026 by Charlotte Hays

All eyes are on the Strait of Hormuz, conduit to one fifth of the world’s energy supply. The New York Post suggests that the results of entire war may come down to control of one small island—Kharg Island—in the Persian Gulf:

An island one-third the size of Manhattan controls virtually all Iranian crude oil exports — and experts say its fate could be essential to President Trump’s endgame with Tehran.

Kharg Island is located about 16 miles off the Iranian coast in the Persian Gulf, making it difficult to defend and easier to isolate — reportedly drawing the attention of administration planners.

“Kharg Island handles roughly 90% of Iran’s crude oil exports. Take it out, and this means cutting off the military budget in addition to pulling the plug on the basic services that keep Iranian society functioning,” said Mohammed Soliman, a senior fellow at the DC-based Middle East Institute.

“Losing Kharg for even a few weeks will create a security and societal crisis in Iran at the same time. Tehran doesn’t get to choose which one to deal with first,” said Soliman, author of “West Asia: A New American Grand Strategy in the Middle East.”

Oil prices had dropped to around $80 a barrel early this morning, as the U.S walked back claims that an oil tanker had been escorted through the Strait. The Wall Street Journal highlights alleged differences between the U.S. and Israel as to when the war ends. Outraged Bernard-Henri Levy insists that the “notion that Benjamin Netanyahu is pulling the president’s strings is particularly absurd. … Anti-Semites will believe anything.”

Fog of War. National Review’s Andrew McCathy writes that President Trump is “preparing an off-ramp” and chides the President for what McCarthy sees as not making a stronger case for the war before launching it. Jason Riley of the Wall Street Journal says that the President’s “intentional ambiguity” on Iran will not serve the GOP well in the midterms. To get really fogged in read the MSM: Mark Penn posts a string of headlines from recent coverage of the Iran War and reflects:

The press is a drumbeat of negativity favoring the Iran regime. It’s puzzling at this point how any success is buried. The reality is likely the regime is being pummeled on all sides and has no ability to provide for its people.

Politico reports that the White House is hoping that the war will end before real economic pain but is skeptical. NEPO-NOPO. Iran’s Supreme Leader Junior is being protected by a special killer squad known as NOPO. Junior, incidentally, has a superb portfolio of international real estate, including digs in London’s exclusive Kensington Square. Junior, till keeping a low profile, is said to have the “charisma of a boiled potato.” Not that the old guy was a charmer either. I’ve noticed a shift in pro-Iran war rhetoric—Laura Ingram last night was imploring the Iranian people, whose pleas for help did not fall on deaf ears, to rise up.

We need to say a few more words about the Iranian women’s soccer team. After years of watching pampered American athletes kneel for our national anthem, we saw the Iranian women’s soccer team show real courage. There are consequences for not singing the national anthem in a bloody totalitarian regime. This brings us to a question: Why isn’t motormouth Megan Rapinoe using her megaphone for Iran’s female soccer team?

CNN’s original story on the attack at Gracie Mansion by ISIS-loving alleged terrorists is one for the books. We must never forget it. It must be quoted:

“Two Pennsylvania teenagers crossed into New York City Saturday morning for what could’ve been a normal day enjoying the city during abnormally warm weather,” read the post. “But in less than an hour, their lives would drastically change as the pair would be arrested for throwing homemade bombs during an anti-Muslim protest outside of Mayor Zohran Mamdani’s home. Here’s what we know so far.”

CNN removed the report and is “spinning like mad” to cover its “terrorist apologia.” CNN lamely tried to say that the original quote didn’t meet its high editorial standards. But it passed muster of editors, right, and was published. National Review says that the left can’t hide the truth about the Gracie Mansion attempted bombing. NR Editor Rich Lowry wittily demolished the attempted coverup yesterday. But New Yorkers can’t get enough of the brave policeman who foiled the bomb attack.

Meanwhile, a group of House Republicans this morning publishes an op-ed at Fox Digital accusing Senate Republicans of “twiddling their thumbs” instead of working to pass the SAVE America Act, which would require an ID to vote. Senate Majority Leader John Thune is coming under attack because he resists forcing the Democrats to engage in a “talking filibuster” on the SAVE America Act, arguing that “the votes still would not be there.” The Save America Act could factor into a Trump endorsement in the Texas Senate race (also here). An editorial in the Wall Street Journal calls the “talking filibuster” a “mirage:”

The reality is that Democratic Senators could take turns giving interminable speeches.

Texas’ Democratic Senate hopeful James Talarico is being compared to Barack Obama. He’s running as a moderate (natch), but National Review says Talarico is “not, in fact, a moderate, unless “moderate” is now a synonym for “white man.” In Georgia, Trump-backed Clayton Fuller will face Democrat Shawn Harris the replace Marjorie Taylor Greene in the House.

Republic of Fraud. Minnesota’s multi-billion-dollar Somali fraud was just the beginning. Since learning about Minnesota’s welfare largesse, we’ve been assaulted by reports of mind-boggling fraud in other states, all seemingly involving government (i.e., taxpayer) money. Even when there is no fraud, expenditures are alarming. A front-page Wall Street Journal report on “the boom in autism therapy” doesn’t allege fraud, but shows how unevaluated Medicaid expenses can skyrocket:

Some companies have found lucrative opportunities to capitalize on a growing need, billing long hours and extracting payments as high as $800 an hour.

A CBS Investigation, meanwhile, is billed as “We visited “ground zero” for hospice fraud: Los Angeles, California:”

Medicare is federally administered, and hospices must be certified for reimbursements. But the state issues the licenses for hospices to operate.

Three years ago, California’s state auditor sounded the alarm that Los Angeles County had seen a 1,500% increase in hospice companies since 2010 – more than six times the national average relative to its elderly population.

Auditors estimated LA County hospices overbilled Medicare by $105 million in a single year. The report called out notable red flags – key warning signs of fraud.

Follow the Science. Joe Nocera has a piece headlined “Science Has a Major Fraud Problem” in The Free Press. Nocera follows “the murky world of fraudulent research, and the sleuths exposing dishonest science.” I’m betting that government money plays a big part in the story.

How smart is AI really? Kobe Yank-Jacobs argues that AI can do the work but asks if it can do the job. How smart is the Pentagon-Anthropic spat? A Wall Street Journal op-ed argues that the dust up is beneficial to China.

Brit transplant and Fox Contributor Steve Hilton, a Republican, appears to actually have a chance at being elected Governor of California. Hilton’s Rise Could Spare Dems from Disaster in California Gov’s Race” is the Politico headline:

Hilton, a Fox News commentator, leads the pack with 19 percent of likely voters in the latest UC Berkeley Citrin Center for Public Opinion Research-POLITICO poll. Behind him is a pile-up of virtually tied candidates — Democrat Tom Steyer at 13 percent and, with 11 percent each, Democrats Katie Porter and Eric Swalwell and Republican Chad Bianco.

Conservatives might be forgiven for thinking the catastrophe to be averted would be a continuation of current policies in California.