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Tag: Iran

Supreme Leader Cheated Death by Seconds. Hot Air: Al Jazeera More Positive to Iran War Than MSM! Trashy Elites. Jessie Buckley’s Paean to Motherhood. More

Posted on by Charlotte Hays

Lucky bathroom break?

It now appears that Supreme Leader Mojtaba Khamenei is alive, having cheated death by seconds:

Iran’s new supreme leader survived US and Israeli air strikes because he stepped outside for a walk in his garden minutes before his home was hit by missiles.

Leaked audio obtained by The Telegraph reveals that Mojtaba Khamenei was targeted in the same attack that killed his father and other members of the Islamic Republic’s leadership. But he had gone outside “to do something” moments before Israeli Blue Sparrow ballistic missiles hit his residence at 9.32am local time on Feb 28.

Two other of the rump regime’s senior leaders were not so fortunate. One was the Commander of the dreaded Basji militia responsible for crushing dissent.

We still don’t know the Supreme Leader’s condition or who’s calling the shots, so to speak, in Iran. The Wall Street Journal maintains in an editorial (“The Battle for the Strait of Hormuz”) that the terror state continues to give the U.S. and Israel ample reason to continue weakening it:

It’s no mystery what Iran intends to achieve by blocking the Strait of Hormuz. It seeks to pressure President Trump to end the war prematurely, establishing an Iranian veto on energy flows and winning impunity in the future. But what if Mr. Trump won’t play along? The result is the emerging Battle of Hormuz.

An Iranian tanker blockade has always been the main contingency anticipated by war planners, and the U.S. has followed a phased plan of degrading air defenses, missiles and navy. These are prerequisites to reopening Hormuz to commercial traffic.

Niall Ferguson at The Free Press marvels that the debilitated Iranian regime can still muster the wherewithal to attack shippers in the strait, but his headline is a chiller: “This Is How the Iran War Goes Global.”  

European allies, if term is not a misnomer, are not tripping over themselves to help secure the Strait. “On Iran, Is Only Bad News Fit to Print?” argue Mark Penn and Andew Stein, in a Wall Street Journal op-ed that explains why the MSM headlines give you a pit in your stomach.  Indeed, Hot Air’s David Strom put up a post last night headlined “Al Jazeera Is Now More Positive on US-Israeli Strategy Than US Media.”

Do you believe you just need President Trump to talk more about why the U.S. struck Iran? Well, the Examiner Chief Political Correspondent Byron York’s “Why Is There Still Uncertainty about Iran War Aims?” might be enriching.

The Silence of the Houthis. In “Why We Haven’t Heard from the Houthis” (not that we were eager to) Asher Orkaby suggests, The Yemeni rebels now likely see Iran as a weak horse.” Meanwhile, Walter Russell Mead writes that “Iran Will Define Trump’s Legacy.” “He has a strong case to make, but if he backs down, the costs will be profound,” argues Mead.

Trashy Elites? This is what it looked like after the glitzy/woke  Oscars. “Rich people leaving their dirt, as always, for poor people,” somebody commented.  But there was one moment during the Oscars that is getting rave reviews in conservative circles: Best Actress and new mother Jessie Buckley’s paean to motherhood. “‘Beautiful Chaos Of a Mother’s Heart’: Jessie Buckley Uses Oscar Speech to Honor Husband, Daughter,” is The Federalist headline:

It’s a known fact to viewers that the Oscars and other indulgent cinema award ceremonies have long prioritized political, feminist messaging over the art and family values normal people hold dear.

But that is exactly why actresses like Jessie Buckley make headlines when they use their platforms to break this trend by honoring their husbands and children ahead of themselves.

Making headlines by saying good things about motherhood. Think about that. National Review has a piece about the man who did a lot to make motherhood unpopular—the recently deceased Paul Ehrlich, author of the disastrous book The Population Bomb. Noah Rothman’s NR piece on Ehrlich’s legacy is well worth reading. Meanwhile, Jack Butler writes in the Wall Street Journal that Ehrlich’s alarmism had tragic consequences. Like convincing us that having children was bad for the world’s resources! 

“Will Republicans Fight for the SAVE Act—or Fold Again?” is the headline on a RCP commentary by Heather Higgins. Higgins writes:

Republicans didn’t win the Senate so their leaders could manage expectations. They won it to deliver results. Will Republicans leaders actually deliver? We are about to find out with the SAVE America Act.

The legislation requires proof of citizenship to vote in federal elections. That’s not some fringe idea. It’s the law of the land in nearly every nation in the world – and is one of the most widely supported election reforms in the United States.

A February Harvard CAPS/Harris poll found 85% of voters say only U.S. citizens should vote in American elections. The same survey found 71% support the SAVE America Act itself, 81% support voter ID, and 75% support proof of citizenship requirements. Perhaps most striking: Roughly 70% of Democratic voters support voter ID.

That’s not partisan territory, that’s consensus. When an issue commands that level of support, failure usually isn’t about policy. It’s about will.

Senate Minority Leader Chuck Schumer has shown no shortage of will in keeping the Department of Homeland Security shut down, but Daniel McCarthy writes that the gambit is becoming riskier and riskier.  The New York Post calls on the Dems to “stop the charade before it is too late.” Meanwhile, Susan Rice, whom you remember from the Biden administration, appears to have no qualms about trying to keep companies in line:

A former top official in the Biden and Obama administrations recently caused a stir after she appeared to vow political retribution against companies once Democrats regain control in Congress and the White House.

Sen. John Kennedy, R-La., last week condemned plans for political retribution he believes Democrats, such as Susan Rice, hope to enact when they regain power and argued that both parties should refrain from using government power to pressure their political opposition.

“What Ms. Rice is talking about is payback,” Kennedy said, referring to comments Rice, who served as Biden’s domestic policy council director, had made on a podcast last month.

Did the Governor fear payback … from the powerful teacher unions? Here’s the latest on Andy Beshear:

Kentucky Gov. Andy Beshear is supposed to be the great moderate hope for Democrats in 2028, but on Friday he revealed himself as a captive of the left’s most destructive interest group. He vetoed a bill to opt his state into the federal tax-credit scholarship program, taking dictation from the teachers union….

The good news is that Republicans who run the Legislature are promising to override the Governor’s veto, which they can do with a simple majority. Mr. Beshear knows this, but he’s figuring his veto will win points with the union even as parents can still benefit from the scholarships. No doubt he’s right, but the rest of the country has learned something important about Mr. Beshear’s values and priorities—and none of it’s good.

And here’s something potentially important about the American Psychological Association. According to City Journal, the association plays both sides of the gender debate:

Unlike some peer organizations, the American Psychological Association (APA) appears to be attempting a “split the difference” communications strategy. It presented one face in response to Singal, and another to the trans activist community—all while denying the contradictions between the two. It thus embodies many of the institutional failures Singal laments.

The APA attempted this ploy when Singal asked the association for a comment for his Times op-ed. The APA referred him to a letter by Katherine McGuire, the APA’s chief advocacy officer, written to the Federal Trade Commission (FTC). The letter walks back the APA’s unambiguous support for pediatric medical interventions, strongly suggesting that the organization supports only psychological interventions for minors experiencing gender dysphoria.

Personnel Problem. A longtime security employee for outgoing Rep. Jasmine Crockett was killed in a standoff with a SWAT team after being accused of impersonating a police officer. He also apparently used an alias. Truly weird.

Oscars: The Thrill Is Gone. Long Gone. The REAL History of Iran’s Quest for Nukes. Pletka: We’re Not Losing. Favorite Supreme Leader Rumor. Bowman on “Jeerleading.” & More

Posted on by Charlotte Hays

The glitz, the glamor … the tedium.

“Super Long Oscars 2026 Had Plenty of Holier-Than-Thou Lectures, Few Memorable Moments” is the New York Post headline.  “One Battle after Another,” described by a Brit source as  a “Hollywood liberal fantasy in movie form” was Best Picture. The movie presented “a mix of serious themes like political struggle, oppression and resistance with comedy.” The Free Press found the movie “unredeemable,” which was pretty must your humble scribe’s impression.

Jessie Buckey, as was not unexpected, won Best Actress for her portrayal of Mrs. Shakespeare as a pagan, half witch in the interminable “Hamnet.” Unherd detected the “whiff of a gimmick” as nagging Mrs. Shakespeare (you’re always in London and not paying enough attention to my needs, blah blah blah) so completely upstaged Mr. S. Yes, in 2026 the Oscars have a lot of girl power.

 “Oscars? What Oscars?” asks Powerline’s John Hinderaker, who suggests (rightly, I think) that in a politically divided country conservatives don’t give a hoot about the left-shewing Oscars.  National Review’s Jeffrey Blehar writes that it’s the night when “Hollywood celebrates its collapse into cultural irrelevance.” The evening is a “celebration of coastal elite tastes and politics,” writes Blehar. “Can the Oscars leave the woke era behind?” asks Spiked On-line (the article does offer interesting comments about a new award this year, for casting). Best Supporting Actor Sean Penn skipped the evening to visit Ukraine, host country to the socially acceptable war.

You can bet your bottom dollar with absolute certitude that nobody at the Oscars was supporting the other war. President Trump says that the U.S. has wiped out Iran’s air defenses, but he is not ready to declare a win. In an editorial headlined “The Real Nuclear History of Iran” the Editorial Board of the Wall Street declares:

So much of today’s media framing of the Iran war relies on a mythology of what came before. The gist is that Iran was contained by Barack Obama until Donald Trump mucked it up, and now the regime will really pursue nuclear weapons.

Naive is too kind a word for this deceptive, partisan history. The real history is worth rehearsing because it shows that Iran’s regime has been relentless for decades in its quest for the bomb, which is why President Trump is weakening it by force….

Critics of Mr. Trump’s bombing campaign now say it will motivate Iran to pursue nuclear weapons in earnest. But that’s what it has been doing for years. Critics also say the IRGC will now steer the ship of state, but it’s been doing that since the days of Mahmoud Ahmadinejad. The IRGC’s humiliation of Iran’s President in recent days only lifts that veil.

Bill Clinton faced a similar moment of truth with North Korea in the 1990s before it had the bomb, and he chose to trust Pyongyang’s diplomatic promises. North Korea lied and cheated and built a bomb anyway. Now it is building missiles that could reach the U.S. Mr. Trump chose to act instead, after his predecessors didn’t, and that is a service to the world.

Rich Lowry also addresses former President Obama’s “disproven illusion” about a nuclear Iran. The American Spectator says the administration has not defined victory, while an X post from the Institute for the Study of War finds that the military trajectory in Iran is relatively positive for the U.S. (Thanks to RCP for noticing this.) U.S. allies have begun working to open Strait of Hormuz in response to pressure from President Trump. The New York Times emphasized that the allies were “cool” to the President’s demands. The U.S. has hit Kharg Island, which raises the stakes for Iran’s oil exports. President Trump is warning of “very bad future” if NATO allies don’t help open the Strait of Hormuz. AEI’s Danielle Pletka: “No, We’re Not Losing in Iran.” Just for fun: Rumors that Supreme Leader Jr. is gay.

Formerly, we worried primarily about terrorists coming into the United States. “Terrorists Are Now Often Made in the USA” is the headline over a sobering op-ed in the Wall Street Journal. Kevin Cohen, an Israeli security expert, points out that in recent terrorist attack on U.S. soil, the perpetrators were naturalized U.S. citizens or offspring of naturalized immigrants:

The violence that unsettled Western societies throughout 2025 looked nothing like the earlier era of clandestine crossings and centrally directed terrorist cells. Increasingly the danger emerges inside societies that still treat admission as the end of a security process rather than the beginning of one. The shift isn’t simply about the number of attacks. It is about where the failure occurs.

Federal agencies now warn that lone-actor violence may be among the hardest threats to detect, precisely because people who are radicalized domestically often remain invisible to investigators until they act.

Radicalization is a strange concept. Would it be rude to ask if these terrorists came to our shores pre-radicalized and we overlooked it? James Gagliano elaborates on our willful blindness. Believe it or not, some have seen loss of a family member in the Iran war as a mitigating factor in the terrorist attack on a kid-filled synagogue in Michigan. The family was a brother who belonged to the terrorist organization Hezbollah—or as the no-nonsense New York Post puts it “hez my brother.” “Why was Mohamed Bailor Jalloh [who had previously been convicted on a terrorist charge before his attack that left one dead at Old Dominion University) not in federal prison?” asks former federal prosecutor Andrew McCarthy. Jesse Arm says in City Journal that the Jewish community must take defensive measures.

While all this is happening, Democrats are refusing to fund the Homeland Security Department. “Put Chuck Schumer on TSA Duty” is the headline over a WSJ editorial. TSA comes under DHS. Since they are not being paid to work, many are calling in sick or outright quitting their jobs. In addition to national security risks, this is no way to treat people.

The SAVE America Act, which would require an ID to vote, will likely come up for a vote tomorrow. USA TODAY has a story explaining what the act would require:

So there are a number of different types of documents that could potentially be eligible for demonstrating a proof of citizenship, birth certificates, passports, all those types of things would help folks. But it’s important to acknowledge that there are lots of citizens that don’t necessarily have these types of documents readily available. 

Oh, c’mon. Readily available? I bet anyone can scrounge us these elusive documents to board a plane or get a benefit. The story goes onto quote the left stalwart Center for American Progress to the effect that 146 Americans do not have a valid passport. You don’t have to have a passport. Townhall has a story on a “Minnesota Elections Official Finally Admits What We All Knew About Illegals Voting.”

Ms. Must has avoided Tucker Carlson stories because they seem so insider baseball. And maybe because I long ago had a soft spot for the preppie populist. Apparently, the former Fox host is alleging that he is being framed as a spy. Eli Lake has a story at The Free Press.

Karol Markowicz writes that it does matter that New York’s First Lady Rama Duwaji is an enthusiastic fan of the abhorrent October 7 massacre.  Also only in New York, kids, New York’s ‘Environmental Justice Communities,’ Pumps Money Into Minority Neighborhoods in What Could Be Illegal Discrimination.

Don’t miss James Bowman’s “Melania: The Age of Jeerleading” at American Greatness. A culture that once celebrated heroes now prefers sneering at them—proof that Western self-forgetfulness has turned admiration into ridicule and criticism into a spectator sport, Jim argues.

Also at American Greatness, “Is James Talarico Really a Christian X-Ray?” Hey, David French likes him, but was that endorsement the kiss of death (or more likely a source of mirth).  

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

Posted on by Charlotte Hays

Well, today is Friday 13th 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.

Has Anybody Actually Seen the Supreme Leader? Can’t Hide: John Thune Tees Up SAVE America Act—sans ‘Talking Filibuster.’ Edith Wilson Writes Memoir. Wait–It Was the OTHER One

Posted on by Charlotte Hays

Oil prices are surging as two tankers are burning off the coast of Iraq, while “dire strait” referring to the Straight of Hormuz is today’s most popular pun. It is dire: seven ships have been attacked in the Persian Gulf. Israel is bombarding Beirut, and the terrorist organization Hezbollah is launching attacks on Israel.

Closer to home, we learn that, according to an FBI memo, Iran aspires to attack the coast of California with drones.  The New York Post quotes a former Army intelligence officer on this threat. Oh, and nobody’s seen hide nor hair of the new Supreme Leader. Amit Segal of The Free Press has a theory on this (“Where in the World Is Mojtaba Khamenei?”):

The Iranian regime is trying to hide their new Supreme Leader while the IRGC is running the war.

Meanwhile, the Pentagon estimates that the Iran War has cost the American taxpayer $11 billion. To put that in perspective, it’s $2 billion more than low-end estimates of what Minnesota’s Somali welfare fraud cost the American taxpayer.

Oil prices are an immediate concern of the American taxpayer. An editorial in the Wall Street Journal (“America’s Strategic Oil Exports”) says that argues that thanks to former Speaker Paul Ryan’s 2015 deal U.S. crude is now helping the world. New York Post “On the Money” columnist Charles Gasparino acknowledges the problem the war has created but also blames hedge funds.

President Trump is constantly being implored to give the end date for the war and to better explain it. For my money, the Wall Street Journal’s Barton Swaim does an excellent job of explaining for Trump in a column headlined “Trump’s Old-Fashioned War.” It’s a simple explanation:

What’s driving both camps batty is that the only plausible motivation for his order to strike Iran is a judicious and honorable one: that the regime in Tehran constantly menaces America and its allies, and that its rulers can be counted on to continue their pursuit of a nuclear weapon. No bizarre ulterior motive necessary….

Mr. Trump’s logorrhea, together with his habit of describing whatever his administration does in superlative terms, led him on Monday to say the war is “very complete, pretty much.” Yet it goes on. He can change his mind about anything at any time, but Mr. Trump is too old-fashioned to think he can call his presidency a success if the U.S. comes to terms with a belligerent Iran.

Conservative London Telegraph columnist Alister Heath, noting what he calls the “ludicrously defeatist” commentary on the war urges President Trump not to cede victory to “drone-wielding barbarians.” The American Conservative (TAC) on the other hand worries about “The Iran Escalation Doom Loop.” An irony of Khamenei Senior’s tenure, according to an op-ed in the Wall Street Journal, is that he cemented the relationship between the U.S. and Israel. A Beirut journalist describes “the war Lebanon never wanted,” but I am going to quote a passage on the novelty of Lebanon—Beirut was once called “the Paris of the Middle East—in the region:

Lebanon is the only Arab country founded on a formal power-sharing system in which Christians serve not merely as a minority to be accommodated but as co-architects of the state. That delicate balance has been under pressure for decades. …

Lebanon’s Christian population was once central to the country’s political and economic life. But sustained waves of emigration—driven by insecurity, economic collapse and political marginalization—have shrunk that role. What was once a confident founding community has become increasingly cautious, reactive and demographically diminished.

Marvel at the viciousness and stupidity of this New York Times “analysis:” “How Hegseth Came to See Moral Purpose in War as Weakness.”

Senate Majority Leader, who unlike Khamenei Jr. is very much in evidence, has teed up the Trump-backed SAVE America Act, which would require an ID for voting, but will not allow the “talking filibuster” that many Republicans demand. The President’s endorsement of a GOP Senate candidate in Texas—Senator John Cornyn and Texas AG Ken Paxton are in a runoff—figures into his effort to pass the SAVE America Act. Wall Street Journal columnist Kimberley Strassel isn’t so sold on the “talking filibuster.” Townhall’s Kurt Schlichter isn’t sold on Cornyn but he says the incumbent has a better chance to beat “fake Christian Alfred E. Swaggert” (James Talarico). Meanwhile, Karl Rove says “don’t bank on Texas’s turning blue” but adds that the outcome of the Cornyn-Paxton GOP primary is crucial. Speaking of Talarico, the Dems’ latest ‘moderate,” the lad has reportedly been busy deleting names of more radical supporters from his website.

“UT Austin Strikes a Blow to Critical Theory” is a highly recommended City Journal story by John Masko that heralds a promising development in public higher education:

Big things are happening in higher education. Take the recent decision by Jim Davis, president of the University of Texas at Austin, to consolidate four academic departments—African and African Diaspora Studies; American Studies; Mexican American and Latina/Latino Studies; and Women’s, Gender and Sexuality Studies—into a single new Department of Social and Cultural Analysis.

Davis’s move is about more than efficiency. University administrators know that the “studies” disciplines are really just one discipline—critical theory. Davis is announcing that the game is up. Other universities should follow UT Austin’s lead. …

Texas’s consolidation reflects the fact that the “studies” disciplines are not primarily about women, African Americans, America, or whatever their prefix happens to be. Rather, they are about the application to those topics of critical theory—“a lens,” in the words of Helen Pluckrose and James Lindsay, “that detects power dynamics in every interaction, utterance, and cultural artifact—even when they aren’t obvious or real.”

Aside from disturbing reports that Russia was helping Iran target U.S. operations, the Brics Bloc (say that ten times fast) has been curiously quiet during the Iran war. According to Sadanand Dhumein the Wall Street Journal, that’s because the Brics Bloc is a house of cards. But don’t fall for the hype that China is going green, says Bjorn Lomborg.

“How You Know When Taxpayers Are Being Defrauded?” is the headline on James Freeman’s “Best of the Web” column. Freeman writes about CBS’ investigative report yesterday that shone a light on massive hospice fraud in California and picks up a memorable line from the CBS expose. There were concerns that …

High rates of terminally ill patients later discharged alive

Freeman explores other instances of taxpayers being cheated through large government programs, which should be a hotter topic than it is.

But I’m Betting There Won’t Be a No Kings Rally in Tehran. An LA Times contributor writes that it was a mistake for Iran’s rump government to shift to a hereditary dynasty in picking Khamenei Jr. to succeed his father. John Lott writes that the endgame for gun control is a completely disarmed population.

I have Iran on the brain this morning, but imagine how things might be different if dissident Iranians had access to guns.

Edith Wilson Memoir Discovered. Well, no, Former First Lady Jill Biden will publish a memoir in June. The New York Times says Mrs. Biden “will give her own account of her husband’s fraught re-election campaign and her views on his stunning decision to drop out of the 2024 presidential race.” It was stunning all right, but who thinks it was Joe’s decision?

I don’t want to put a damper on the former First Lady’s literary exertions. But there’s probably a better source of insider tales than you’ll find in Jill’s book. President Trump is declassifying a lot of stuff from the Biden administration. Julie Kelly explores this in her “Declassified with Julie Kelly” on Substack. The headline is “Denial of Executive Privilege is the Latest Karmic Episode for Democrats.” Jill, can you compete with this?

Who’s Winning Iran War? Nepo Supreme Leader Keeping Low Profile. Guess Who Came to Dinner at Gracie Mansion? Can Homilies Liberate Iran? More

Posted on by Charlotte Hays

A New York Times headline writer observes that President Trump is sending “mixed” messages on when the Iran war will end. Hardly surprising in a ten-day old intervention. Meanwhile, President Trump’s advisers are said to be urging him to find an “exit ramp.”

But how is the war going? An editorial in the Wall Street Journal, which has strongly supported the war in its opinion pages, argues that right now Iran is “not winning” but that could change:

Is it time for President Trump to call off the bombing and declare victory in Iran? You’d think so judging by the panic in Washington as the price of oil spikes. That certainly is the fondest wish of the ayatollahs, who know they’re losing.

The reality inside Iran and the region is that the U.S. and Israel continue to make progress. The regime loses more of its military each day, along with the ability to hurt its neighbors. The Israelis estimate 70% to 75% of Iran’s missile launchers have been destroyed, and the U.S. has destroyed at least 43 Iranian ships.

On Monday the United Arab Emirates received only 18 drones, down from 126 a day over the past week. We’ll soon see if that was a blip or a meaningful decline….

President Trump said that the war will be over “soon,” but Iran’s rump regime pushed back against this assertion, and the President then vowed to hit ‘em harder. U.K.

There’s something new and different in the choice of Khamenei Jr. as Supreme Leader. “Mojtaba Khamenei Brings Monarchy Back to Iran” is the headline on a piece by Reuel Marc Gerecht and Ray Takeyh. They write:

Khamenei’s son and successor, the Ayatollah Mojtaba Khamenei, 56, has neither his father’s experience nor Khomeini’s pedigree. His ascent marks the collapse of the last egalitarian pillar of the revolution, namely that the mullahs, unlike decadent Persian shahs, don’t do dynastic succession. With Mojtaba, the revolution has come full circle. Even without regime change, monarchy has returned to Iran….

In the turbulent politics of the Islamic Republic, violence and terror have always been a means of political control. But Mojtaba’s generation of militants has faced more popular insurrections as the revolution has lost much of its luster. Even in the context of Iran’s ruthless politics, this generation shows a particular attachment to terrorism. Violence is the mandatory response to those seeking to undermine the regime. The recent uprising demonstrated the lengths to which this generation will go to preserve God’s will manifested.

Mojtaba will continue his father’s search for foreign devils.

Mojtaba has been keeping a low profile. So much so that the Middle East Forum Observer speculated (flirting with a Babylon Bee parody!”) that “Elevating a Dead Man Would Be Far-Fetched, so Mojtaba Khamenei May Be Injured and in Hiding.”

The Wall Street Journal’s Global View columnist Walter Russell Mead explores three ways the war might end. The likeliest, he concludes, is that the U.S. largely clears the Gulf but that the current regime survives, solving nothing fundamental but preserving a fragile balance of power in a vital part of the world. This obviously is not the optimal scenario. Intriguing: Douglas Feith, a George W. Bush Defense Department official, says “Hold on tight. Trump is trying something new in Iran. Critics demanding a “day after” plan are confusing this presidency with that of George W. Bush.” Still, Mollie Hemingway indicates GOP voters will grow restive if this drags on too long. 

One More Thing. The Iranian Women’s Soccer team. Australia has granted asylum to the “lionesses who roared with silence,” (by not singing the regime national anthem), and could face death if returned to Iran. This Just In: Khamenei Sr. said Jr. was not fit to lead. Oh, and he’s impotent.

“The N.Y. Terrorist Attack and DHS Funding” is the headline of a Wall Street Journal editorial. Because of the Iran war, this is a time of heightened concern over national security and public safety. Yet, according to the editorial, Democrats refuse to restore funding to the Department of Homeland Security:

Inflicting pain on the public is a bad negotiating tactic, and the DHS shutdown is being felt acutely at the nation’s airports, as the Transportation Security Administration deals with employees calling out of work. … The bigger worry, though, is that there might be a security lapse that makes this failure to fund DHS look in retrospect like the height of partisan recklessness. In addition to airport security screeners, DHS includes the Coast Guard (which has personnel who support the U.S. Navy in Bahrain), the Secret Service, and the Cybersecurity and Infrastructure Security Agency.

Democrats insist they won’t restore DHS funding without an overhaul of ICE, but they are running a big risk if there is a successful terror attack. After the attempt in Manhattan, the wisest move for Mr. Schumer would be to quit posturing and pass the bill.

Meet the Gracie Mansion ISIS-loving wannabe bombing suspects (via the New York Post):

Emir Balat, 18, and 19-year-old Ibrahim Kayumi, drove to Manhattan from their upscale Pennsylvania homes with the intent to cause mayhem and kill – all in the name of the Islamic State, according to the federal complaint against them….

When he arrived at an NYPD precinct, Balat allegedly asked cops for pen and paper – and scribbled a disturbing manifesto proclaiming his extremist beliefs.

“All praise is due to Allah lord of all worlds,” he allegedly wrote. “I pledge my allegiance [sic] to the Islamic State. Die in your rage yu [sic] kuffar.”

New York Mayor Mamdani has taken heat, as you know, for his response to the dueling protests (one anti-Muslim and the other pro-Isis) at Gracie Mansion. FYI: It was the Isis guys (who made today’s New York Post cover) who had the bomb.

Speaking of Gracie Mansion, guess who scored a coveted invitation to break the Ramadan fast there with New York’s first family? The Mayor hosted anti-Israel activist and accused Hamas sympathizer Mahmoud Khalil, and his familyfor dinner at Gracie Mansion for the holy month of Ramadan. The chitchat had to be interesting.

Highly Recommended. “The Moment Mass Immigration Started,” by Alicia Nieves, for Compact Magazine. Mass illegal immigration started before most of us were aware of the implications and with canny activists who knew how to exploit loopholes:

Violence, poverty, and political instability can explain why individuals want to leave their countries. But they do not explain why migration toward the United States accelerates suddenly at specific moments in time. …

What emerged beginning in 2014 was a massive surge of a new class of migrants—unaccompanied minors and families with children—who were taking advantage of an emergent process created by the gradual accumulative effect of various discretionary policies and legal precedents interacting with one another.

Illegal immigration is a safety issue of our time. The D.C. Examiner has a recommended piece about how Virginia’s Fairfax County’s sanctuary policies led to an illegal immigrant murdering an innocent woman. Mackerel Snapper News. Ms. Must was disheartened—but hardly surprised when Pope Leo XIV addressed the crowd in St. Peter’s Square Sunday after the Angelus and implicitly came out against U.S. policy in Iran. Bill McGurn gently takes the Holy Father to task in “Homilies Won’t Liberate Iran.” McGurn writes:

At the moment the Vatican is almost guaranteeing its wisdom will be ignored by those who need it most. “The net result of the churches’ concessions to the political left has been to take religious leaders out of serious conversation with policymakers on matters of war and peace, leaving them to lob minatory rhetorical grenades from the bleachers,” Catholic theologian George Weigel wrote in 2024. Nearly 40 years ago Mr. Weigel wrote his book “Tranquillitas Ordinis,” arguing that the real goal of war is an order rooted in justice and freedom.

This may sound harsh, but it’s necessary to say. The Catholic Church and its last few popes have understood only the destructive force of war. They appear to have given little thought to the terrible consequences for innocent people when soft words are offered as a substitute for tough but necessary action. …

New Supreme Leader. Mamdani Criticized for Response to Dueling Protests. Inevitable Happens: David French Falls for Talarico. More

Posted on by Charlotte Hays

From Tehran to New York’s iconic Gracie Mansion, where there were dueling protests this weekend—one anti-Muslim and one pro-ISIS (!), it’s been an unquiet world.

Whether Iran’s despotic regime will fall soon is the question on everybody’s mind. The Free Press early this morning was leading with a possible energy crisis triggered by Iran.

Not surprisingly, Iran “projected defiance” by picking Mojtaba Khamenei, 56, son of the late Ayatollah, as Supreme Leader. President Trump finds the new Khamanei just bad as the other one.

Meanwhile, a U.K. Telegraph opinion column headline proclaims that Iran’s malevolent new Ayatollah shows the regime has learnt nothing. Tehran is fighting with jets dating back to the Vietnam era. War Secretary Pete Hegseth tells CBS that the U.S. will do whatever it takes to topple Iran’s regime:

“We’re willing to go as far as we need in order to be successful,” Hegseth told CBS News’s Major Garrett during a “60 Minutes” sit-down interview that aired Sunday night.

“We reserve the right. We would be completely unwise if we did not reserve the right to take any particular option, whether it included boots on the ground or not boots on the ground.”

There is a media divide over whether to support President Trump’s Iran intervention. The American Conservative [TAC] opposes the intervention and warns against arming the Kurds to fight in Iran (it is “madness” and will achieve nothing but instability and carnage”). The Wall Street Journal, whose opinion pages have supported the intervention, states the “risks” of arming the Kurds in an editorial:.

The greatest risk is that a Kurdish military front inside Iran could let the regime play to latent Iranian nationalism. So far the Iranian public hasn’t rallied to defend the regime even under relentless U.S. and Israeli bombing.

Allyssia Finley, also of the Wall Street Journal, writes that the United States’ oil and gas dominance has weakened Iran. The piece most supportive of the Trump administration’s Iran intervention this morning comes from Joshua  Muravchik, also writing for the WSJ:

For years since the U.S. stumbled in Iraq and Afghanistan, we have been on our back foot, and the forces of anti-Americanism have been gaining strength and confidence. Iran and Cuba present Mr. Trump a chance to reverse that trend. It would be a valuable prize for the country and for him, an honor far nobler than the Nobel

Also an optimistic view, Israeli historian Benny Morris proposes that “the war with Iran is reshaping the entire Middle East from the Gulf States to Lebanon with surprising speed.”  The Wall Street Journal’s Elliott Kaufman had a weekend interview with historian Ali M. Ansari who says that the Iranian regime is facing a crisis like never before in the current situation. What if the reactionary Iranian regime was being consumed by its own pathologies even before the Trump intervention? An intriguing notion, explored by Tim Black at Spiked On-line. Jonathan Rosen explores the fatwa—the Iranian weapon stronger than bombs—that might remain with us even if the regime falls.

Iran isn’t the only place having an issue with bombing this weekend. “Devil’s Work” scream the New York Post front-page headline.

Seem that demonstrators hurled an explosive known as the “Mother of Satan” in front of Gracie Mansion, the official residence of New York Mayor Zohran Mamdani.

It was a confusing double protest in front of Gracie Mansion: a protest against Muslim influence in New York followed by a pro-Muslim protest. Manhattan Borough President Brad Hoylman-Sigal attributed the explosive hurling to the wrong protest group:

Hoylman-Sigal issued a statement on X Saturday claiming, in part, “White Christian Nationalists led a roaming trail of Islamophobia and antisemitism today on Manhattan’s Upper East Side at Gracie Mansion where they targeted our mayor with an incendiary device.”

The borough president took down the statement before it was publicly revealed Sunday that two pro-Muslim demonstrators, identified as Emir Balat and Ibrahim Kayumi, were arrested in the incident. Federal authorities are working with the NYPD on the case.

The “Mother of Satan” hurlers are described as self-radicalized ISIS protesters. The original, anti-Muslim protest was lead by a right-wing agitator Jake Lang, reportedly a pardoned January 6 protestor.  Miranda Devine argues in an impassioned column arguing that the New York Mayor’s response was telling:

Mayor Zohran Mamdani showed his true colors over the weekend when he responded to the attempted ISIS-inspired bombing of an anti-Muslim protest by first condemning “white supremacy” before getting around to saying “violence at a protest is never acceptable.”

That’s one way of putting it.

It took NYPD Commissioner Jessica Tisch to issue her own statement for the full gravity of the attack to be officially acknowledged.

Indeed, the Mayor seems to have plumb forgotten the ISIS guys in his response. Adding to the heady mix—or maybe not adding to the mix because of social media shielding, the Mayor’s wife, Rama Duwaji’s apparent enthusiasm for the October 7 massacre of Israelis has come to light.

The mind-boggling, multi-billion-dollar welfare fraud in Minnesota appears to be just the beginning. A Wall Street Journal editorial on the “Medicaid Autism Racket” lays out just how easy it is to defraud government programs with vague behavioral therapy diagnoses:

Behavioral therapy is an especially ripe target for people looking to game Medicaid. Diagnostic standards can be elastic, and states provide little oversight of providers and pay claims without requiring verification of treatment or benefits. While insurers that administer Medicaid benefits have an incentive to police fraud, autism treatment has become a fee-for-service free-for-all.

Minnesota is a case study. According to a federal complaint, 27-year-old Abdinajib Hassan Yussuf set up a fly-by-night autism center claiming to provide one-on-one therapy for autistic children. He allegedly worked with medical professionals to have children diagnosed with autism and paid kickbacks to parents to enroll them in his center. … Prosecutors last fall brought charges against a 28-year-old Minnesotan woman in a similar scheme that included bilking the government for meals and transportation….

The welfare-state fraud story is turning out to be enormous. As the evidence emerges, keep in mind that the root problem isn’t fraudsters, who are always with us. It’s the programs that make it so easy for criminals to scam.

More on the American taxpayer spigot. Fox Digital has a report that non-U.S. citizens will no longer be able to access SBA loans. Ms. Must’s first reaction—you mean to tell me that non-citizens were receiving SBA loans?

New York Times “conservative” columnist David French has lost his heart to Texas senatorial aspirant James Talarico, the Democratic nominee and the Presbyterian seminarian who says that God is “non-binary” and there are six genders. More like Mr. French has lost his mind, writes The Federalist’s Chris Bray:

In a moment we should have seen coming, New York Times columnist David French has just gushed out a shameless celebration of Talarico’s insane nonsense, every word of which should qualify the worst op-ed prostitute in America for urgent psychiatric intervention. Here’s a whole paragraph: “Or, to put it another way, Talarico is one of the few openly Christian politicians in the United States who acts like a Christian, and by acting like a Christian he reveals a profound contrast with so many members of the MAGA Christian movement that’s dominated American political life for 10 years.”

Speaking of Mr. Talarico… you remember his clever high jinks with Stephen Colbert, when the two claimed that incorrectly Talarico was being censored. Talarico was originally being denied airtime because of the intricacies of the “Equal Time” rule. An op-ed in the Wall Street Journal addresses the Talarico ruse and goes on to explain that the “Equal Time” rule is obsolete and should be ditched.