israel Archives

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 March 17, 2026March 17, 2026 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.

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 March 10, 2026March 10, 2026 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 March 9, 2026March 9, 2026 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.

‘Iraq Syndrome’ Affects Iran Views. SCOTUS’ Blow to Rad Trans Movement. Nero Newsom Sips Wine as LA Burns. And More

Posted on June 20, 2025June 23, 2025 by Charlotte Hays

As Israeli Defense Forces carried out a series of overnight strikes on Tehran, the world waits for President Trump to decide whether the U.S. will bomb the Islamic Republic’s principal nuclear installation.

The president says his decision will come sometime in the next two weeks, insisting that there is still a chance for a deal with the Mullahs, but breaking news is that the Mullahs have rejected President Trump’s overtures. But is there hidden brilliance in Trump’s delaying tactics?

Meanwhile, Douglas Murray writes that President Trump can end the nuclear threat from Iran with one call. Murray recalls that since the 1979 Islamic Revolution, Iran has exported terror all over the world. Murray writes:

President Trump’s campaign promise is that he will never allow Iran to have nukes.

The president’s only need is to make good on his promise to the American electorate.

If he does that, then he will send a sharp but necessary message to a regime that has too long threatened his own life, the life of Israel and indeed the world.

Is it as clear-cut as Murray suggests? In an exclusive report, the New York Post cites unnamed White House insiders who say that Trump fears that Iran might become another Libya. The Post observes:

The president in recent days has specifically mentioned the oil-rich North African country’s decade-long plunge into anarchy in 2011 — after the US joined a NATO bombing campaign to oust dictator Muammar Gaddafi — three sources close to the administration said.

Libya is not the only issue. The thing that is holding many Republicans back from full-throated support of U.S. strikes on the Fordow nuclear facility is (as the headline on Peggy Noonan’s all Street Journal column puts it) “Iraq’s shadow over the Iran debate.” You remember how that turned out. “Iran in 2025 Is Not Iraq 2003” is the headline on Robert Spencer’s PJ Media column. Spencer, who has written extensively on Islam, did not support the Iraq War. He writes:

And now, the idea that the Islamic regime in Iran could well be in its last days is giving a lot of people who style themselves “America First” the vapors. But Iran in 2025 is pretty much the polar opposite of Iraq in 2003. Saddam’s Iraq did not enforce Sharia; it was a secular state, which rankled many Muslim hardliners within the country….

In Iran today, on the other hand, people have been suffering under the rule of Islamic law for 46 years now. They’re so sick of it that a recent survey revealed the shocking fact that fewer than 40 percent of Iranians now identify as Muslim at all. The country was Western-oriented and secular before 1979, and many people still fondly recall those days, and have told their children about them.

Examiner Chief Political Correspondent Byron York asks two essential questions: Is a U.S. strike on Fordow really necessary, and will it work? The Wall Street Journal’s Kimberley Strassel addresses “the ‘America First’ faceoff” over the pressing Iran question. Strassel argues that “the isolationists” made a mistake in taking a stand against a position most Americans support.

Meanwhile, an editorial in the same newspaper writes in the same vein. Coining the term “Iraq Syndrome,” the WSJ editors write:

The press is full of reporting on the “MAGA civil war” over Iran, but what’s notable is that the loudest isolationists appear to be losing the debate. It’s worth considering how they’ve misread the historical moment, the views of most Republicans, and above all President Trump….

Mr. Trump sees himself as a peacemaker, but that is no contradiction with wanting to deny a nuclear bomb to a theocratic Iranian regime. On that point he has been consistent since before he entered politics. The inconsistencies lie with the isolationists so traumatized by Iraq and Afghanistan that they would let a revolutionary regime go nuclear in the name of peace.

The Supreme Court’s 6-3 ruling upholding Tennessee’s ban on surgical and chemical castration for minors came down Wednesday, the day before Juneteenth. So we’re just getting around to this all-important ruling, which delivered a “major blow” to the activist transgender movement. Justice Clarence Thomas signed on to Chief Justice John Roberts’ majority opinion but wrote a concurring opinion that demolished “the expert class”:

“First, so-called experts have no license to countermand the ‘wisdom, fairness, or logic of legislative choices.’ … Second, contrary to the representations of the United States and the private plaintiffs, there is no medical consensus on how best to treat gender dysphoria in children,” Thomas wrote. “Third, notwithstanding the alleged experts’ view that young children can provide informed consent to irreversible sex-transition treatments, whether such consent is possible is a question of medical ethics that States must decide for themselves.

Meanwhile, a California Democrat whose daughter had toyed with the idea of “gender transition,” proclaimed herself “absolutely thrilled” with the high court’s ruling:

“We need to protect all the children in the United States, not just those who are lucky enough to live in Republican states,” she added.

New York’s Democratic primary is June 24^th, and all eyes are upon anti-Israel radical socialist mayoral candidate Zohran Mandani. The eyes of business leaders, especially, are on Mamdani because they wonder if, in the event of his election, it will be time to pull up stakes in Gotham. “It only takes a handful of successful people to leave to decimate the city’s tax base,” Bill Ackman told The Free Press. While Mamdani is getting the buzz, a Manhattan Institute poll has former Governor Andrew Cuomo ahead.

Did Nero Use Hair Gel: We now learn that America’s own Nero has repeated his French Laundry debacle by having a festive time at an exclusive wine tasting in Napa Valley while Los Angeles burned during the ICE riots. City Journal has the story:

In this instance, it was wine, rather than food, that caught Newsom’s attention. But the principle is the same: Newsom sips Cabernet while his state burns.

But Newsom has sorrows to drown: He lost to Trump on the National Guard issue.

Another powerful figure in Democratic politics, teachers’ union boss Randi Weingarten, has resigned her position at the Democratic National Committee. What? You didn’t realize that Weingarten, the power behind the school closures that led to learning loss for countless American children, was even a member of the DNC? The Washington Examiner has that story (“Randi Weingarten Exemplifies DNC and Union Corruption”):

Weingarten has evidently been a member of the DNC for the last 23 years, including serving on its Rules and Bylaws Committee. That fact is seemingly impossible to find in liberal media coverage of Weingarten prior to her resignation, even though Weingarten is the leader of the second-largest teachers union in the country….

To summarize, Weingarten served as a member of the DNC while her public union, which bargains against taxpayers, was funneling money to Democrats. For most of that time, Weingarten’s AFT was taking dues from people who did not want to pay them. All the while, Weingarten was directing CDC guidance. The corruption of the teachers’ union-Democratic Party relationship was in full swing, with Weingarten representing both sides.

For all the rants from Democrats about Republican “dark money” and the undue influence of groups such as the National Rifle Association, the DNC was happy with this corrupt relationship with Weingarten and her union. Evidently, so was liberal media, which made next-to-no mention of her DNC role and offered almost no pushback against her as she used her union and DNC influence to write CDC policy and keep schools closed.

The Wall Street Journal opinion pages are hot-hot this morning. Highly recommended are Heather Mac Donald’s “Is Rioting Acceptable? And If So, How Much?” and an editorial headlined “The Social Security Iceberg Gets Closer.” The estimates are for a 23% cut in Social Security and an 11% cut in Medicare in eight years if something is not done. Somebody needs to get to work on this.

A Message from IWF Fellow Ellie Krasne-Cohen

Posted on October 13, 2023October 13, 2023 by IWN Staff

Ellie Krasne-Cohen here, Jew, conservative, Iowan, Parisian. With the events over the past week, I felt like I needed to share resources and my personal perspective (I’m writing in my personal capacity). This is a watershed moment for exposing left-wing hatred and the threat it poses to freedom and human dignity.

I grew up in a small town in rural Iowa. Since then, I have lived in Chicago, DC, New York and now Paris. Never in my childhood in Iowa, amongst mostly white Protestants, did I see the hate I’ve seen this past week.

In Paris, 3,000 pro-Hamas demonstrators gathered in the Place de la République. My husband said, “We’ve seen this for years. Now Americans see it.”

In the U.S., Harvard, Michigan, and Wisconsin students cheer on the terror in Israel. Washington Post columnists and school superintendents alike sympathize with violence. The response? We, as Woody Allen once quipped, “write strongly worded letters to the editor.”

Left-wing and Islamic antisemitism are serious issues, and we at IWF are likely familiar with critical race theory’s history, institutional capture, BLM’s antisemitism, and left-wing hatred writ large.

But many well-intentioned, everyday Americans do not fully grasp what we are dealing with. People including Ayan Hirsi Ali, Douglas Murray, and Niall Ferguson, were telling everyone. IWF has wonderful scholars. But who was listening?

I don’t know the next step, but it starts with information. To that end, here is a resources list, which I hope is helpful in some small way as we continue our task of rebuilding a deeply broken culture.