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Tag: Republicans

Who’s the Real Enemy? Joe Kent: Strange New Respect. Hochul: Just Cut Me the Checks, Dammit. Scourge of E-bikes. Rise of Chicken Thighs. More

Posted on by Charlotte Hays

As the U.S. warplanes and helicopters kicked open the battle to reopen the Strait of Hormuz, oil prices subsided, and Iran’s rump regime recommended hanging protesters.

The butchers of Iran hanged three people, including a teenaged wrestling champion, after confessions obtained by torture. An editorial in the Wall Street Journal (“The Enemy in Iran in One Lesson”) addresses Iran’s latest public hangings:

We know it’s fashionable on the left and even in some parts of the right these days to think that President Trump is the enemy in the Iran war. So forgive us for pointing out the character of the actual enemy our troops are fighting. To wit, Iran’s regime has resumed executing its citizens for protesting against the government.

The hangings underscore the brutal way the regime has tried to stop the protests. By some counts, regime enforcers killed as many as 32,000 Iranians who took to the streets. Photographs leaked from the country show body bags lined up en masse. Many of the wounded were pursued and then killed in hospitals.

Meanwhile, save a thought for the members of the Iranian women’s soccer team who have returned home from their matches in Australia. Some of the team initially sought asylum after they declined to sing the national anthem during a match. But they changed their minds under what must have been enormous pressure. Their families at home would have suffered had they defected to the West. You can imagine how the players will be punished now that the government has them again.

Saudi Arabia, which has always had a “complicated” relationship with Iran, is threatening attacks against Iran, which just goes to show you that bombing your neighbors’ energy infrastructure is not such a neighborly thing to do. Meanwhile, Reuel Marc Gerecht and Ray Takyeh  argue that, while severely degraded, the regime in Iran will still pose a threat if not completely overthrown, in a Wall Street Journal piece headlined “Will Trump Finish the Job in Iran?” We’re always being told by critics that Trump hasn’t explained the war to the American people.  Not so, according to the Wall Street Journal story headlined “In Nearly 90 Truth Social Posts, Trump Narrates the War in Iran.”

Sayanora. U. S. strikes have killed Islamic Revolutionary Guards Corps spokesperson Ali Mohammad Naini. Still no proof of life from Supreme Leader Khamenei Jr.,–in the closet?—but there are concerns that his two luxury residents—lots of tyrants dabble in real estate—located in London’s posh Kensington section are perfect for surveilling the Israeli embassy (it’s conveniently right next door). Eli Lake reports in The Free Press that Israel is helping Iran’s Opposition:”

Israelis are targeting the security forces that recently murdered protesters en masse. And they may provide air cover when the next uprising begins.

Politico’s Wishful Thinking. “The GOP Is Dismissing Joe Kent. They Might Come to Regret It,” is Politico’s headline on a story about the counterterrorism official who resigned in protest of the Iran war. What’s interesting is that Joe Kent—a Tucker Carlson ally (thanks, Suzy Weiss for this and RCP for this)—is not the sort of guy who usually gets such sympathetic treatment in liberal outlets. But the Kent resignation can be used against President Trump.

Describing President Trump as “a man who has been stabbed in the back more times than Julius Caesar — yet has still survived,” Douglas Murray writes that “a deranged Tucker Carlson” has backstabbed Trump. Enquiring Minds Want to Know: Did Trump utter, “Et tu, Tucker?” One more observation on Kent. “Joe Kent sums up everything that’s wrong with the MAGA Israelophobes,” Brendan O’Neill writes at Spiked.

Wall Street Journal columnist Kimberley Strassel’s lead this morning is very funny:

In a bid to reopen the Department of Homeland Security, the White House on Thursday offered to make Senate Minority Leader Chuck Schumer head of the department. Mr. Schumer flatly rejected the offer, saying he could never trust anyone the Trump team appointed.

The column addresses the intransigence of the Dems on reopening DHS, even though the Trump administration and Senator Markwayne Mullin, whose confirmation hearings to lead DHS took place this week, are ready to embrace certain reform. Strassel says that behind closed doors, the Dems admit they have a problem. She writes:

Note that this week’s letter was authored by Mr. Homan, who is as serious as a heart attack about border security and who knows DHS inside out. If he feels these changes can be accommodated, they can. The letter lays out five alterations, all of which, in some form, address Democratic demands.

It promises an expansion of the use of body cameras, new limits on enforcement operations in sensitive places (hospitals, schools), additional DHS oversight in the form of mandatory inspector-general audits, a promise that officers will visibly wear ID and say their names if asked, and adherence to laws against the deportation or detention of U.S. citizens. …

In a sign they know they are losing ground, Democratic leaders this week scurried to send a (nonpublic) counteroffer to the White House—after weeks of completely ignoring administration outreach. And some Senate Democrats are in conversations with Republicans about a deal. The lesson for the GOP (as always): Good policy is good politics.

Schadenfreude Corner. New York Governor Kathy Hochul apparently believed taxpayers were captives, no matter how big a chunk government demanded of their earnings. But now Hochul is begging taxpayers who fled New York’s high taxes to come—she needs their money. National Review writes about what it calls Hochul’s “seller’s remorse:”

Back in 2022, Hochul built upon the work of her predecessor, Andrew Cuomo, in making the case that Republicans were unwelcome in the Empire State. “Just jump on a bus and head down to Florida where you belong, okay,” Hochul said of her gubernatorial opponent, Lee Zeldin, among others. “Get out of town because you don’t represent our values. You’re not New Yorkers.” …

Hochul’s plea is notable for many reasons, but none so galling as that she appears sincerely to believe that America’s citizenry works for her. If anyone has a patriotic obligation to the State of New York, it is not those Americans who choose to live in other states. In Hochul’s mind, “generous social programs” are self-evidently virtuous. And yet, clearly, not everyone feels the same way. Ultimately, politics involves trade-offs, and for a considerable number of Americans, the judgments being made in Albany are less attractive than those that are being made in Tallahassee, Austin, and elsewhere. In a particularly embarrassing turn of phrase, Hochul demanded that rich families ought simply to “cut me the checks.”

The Scourge of E-bikes. Since e-bikes on recklessly driven on sidewalks by klutzes have evoked my anger more than once recently, my heart went out to New Yorkers when I read this headline: “Mayor Mamdani Is putting Countless New Yorkers at Risk with Change to E-bike Rules — I Know because I Was Critically Hurt by One.” Here’s what Hizzoner did:

Hell on wheels now has no limit.

At least no speed limit, after City Hall gave e-bikers license to run roughshod over New York City.

As of March 27, the NYPD will no longer issue criminal summonses to e-bikers and cyclists for traffic offenses, spiking an Adams-era policy to criminally charge reckless riders for blowing stop signs or illegally zipping along city sidewalks. 

The idea underlying the e-bank craze (and craziness) is that we can save the planet by running over people instead of polluting the environment with automobiles.  “Fossil fuels are the stuff oflife,” counters James James Woudhuysen of Spiked.

On Buffets and Menus Everywhere: once spurned chicken thighs, “What the Rise of Chicken Thighs Says about America,” in the Wall Street Journal proposes tat the trend is both economic and cultural.

MAGA Strongly Behind Trump. Supreme Leader’s Support Not Quite So Strong. Rand Paul: Call Me a Snake to My Face! Somebody Should Have Called Cesar Chavez Monster … To His Face

Posted on by Charlotte Hays

Supreme Leader Junior Watch: Iran’s Mojtaba Khamenei is apparently “misfunctioning” and “not in control” of Iran’s rump regime. If you find out who is in control, drop me a line.

President Trump & MAGA Watch: The MSM seems to be invested in pushing the notion that President Trump is likewise “misfunctioning” and not in control of his MAGA base, but Karl Rove pours cold water on this (“Trump Hasn’t Lost His Voters Over Iran”) today in the Wall Street Journal.

Rove highlights the resignation of counterterrorism official Joe Kent, which the left cheers as a sign of the fracturing of Trump’s MAGA armor. Not so, argues Rove:

These podcasters, YouTubers and independent journalists have decided President Trump’s actions are a betrayal of MAGA. To them, he’s an unwitting tool of the Israelis or, as some on the neoisolationist right say, the Jews.

Tuesday’s resignation of Joe Kent as National Counterterrorism Center director will enthuse the blame-it-on-the-Jews chorus. Mr. Kent blamed the “pressure from Israel and its powerful American lobby” and a “misinformation campaign” driven by the media and “Israeli officials” for President Trump’s decision to demolish the Iranian threat. He also said the Israelis used the same tactic to “draw us into the disastrous Iraq war.” (In reality, Israel was reluctant to see the U.S. go to war against Saddam Hussein’s regime.)

Much of the criticism of Operation Epic Fury comes from the likes of the Holocaust denier Nick Fuentes, the Israel-obsessed podcasters Tucker Carlson and Megyn Kelly, and the conspiracist Candace Owens. Do voters who identify themselves as MAGA Republicans share their opinions? Do they feel betrayed by the president?

Democratic pollster Mark Penn is definitely not MAGA, but he had an interesting X post (thanks RCP for tipping me off to it) headlined “Making the Impossible Possible.” Penn writes:

After reading so-many analyses that regime change in Iran was impossible, it seems as though the impossible is looking more and more possible. Some of the coverage is even turning as the WSJ story on the elimination of Ali Larijari documented how the leadership of Iran is being reduced to on all fronts and the security apparatus is beginning to wear thin and is systematically being frightened.

And it’s pretty clear the US is preparing to take Kharg island once all the forces needed are in place to apply next level of pressure against Iran, which is alienating all of the other Arab countries with attacks on their hotels and airports.

Writing at The Free Press, Middle East analyst Michael Doran goes out on a limb with “Trump Can Deliver a Lasting Victory in Iran. Here’s How.”

This doesn’t mean that everything is peachy keen. With the price of oil spiraling towards $120 and the Fed holding steady on interest rates yesterday, the market plummeted and it’s not certain that today will be better. Also alarming are reports that Russia is sending oil the Cuba and intelligence assistance to Iran. But the Senate did thwart Dem attempt to—well—thwart Trump’s actions in Iran.

There were several—uh—lively hearings yesterday on Capitol Hill. Director of National Intelligence Tulsi Gabbard told a Senate committee that the Iranian regime appeared to be “intact but largely degraded” by ongoing U.S. and Israeli strikes. But a Wall Street Journal editorial (“Tulsi Gabbard’s Resistance Shop”) highlighted what it sees as another facet of Ms. Gabbard’s work-product:

Call it the revolving door. As one top aide who despises President Trump’s foreign policy leaves Tulsi Gabbard’s office, another joins.

On Monday Joe Kent tendered his resignation as counterterrorism chief under Ms. Gabbard. The same day, news broke that Ms. Gabbard hired Dan Caldwell as an adviser to senior intelligence officials….

Mr. Caldwell did his exit interview with Mr. Carlson in April, after he was pushed out of the Pentagon in a leak investigation. He has spent the months since opposing Mr. Trump’s Iran policy, including a second time on Mr. Carlson’s show amid the 12-day war in June.

The confirmation hearing of Senator Markwayne Mullin, nominated to run the Department of Homeland Security, featured a confrontation between Senator Rand Paul and Mullin. Senator Still smarting for allegedly having been called “a snake” by Mullin Paul demanded “tell me to my face.” Nevertheless, Mullin’s nomination is expected to snake its way—I mean advance—to the full Senate.

Attorney General Pam Bondi was summoned to address the Epstein files (so called—it’s more diffuse) by the Republican-led House Oversight Committee but not surprisingly, it was the Dems who walked out on the AG’s hearing.  Also in Congress, the SAVE America Act, which outrageously seeks to ensure that only citizens vote in American elections—the horror!—is up for debate. John Tillman asks at The Hill: So why can’t Republicans pass such an obvious bill?

Mr. Tillman kindly answers his own question:

The answer is what I call “the political vise.”

The reason Republicans keep getting stifled is because they’re being pressured from three different directions. On one side, they have the public, which strongly supports what the GOP is trying to do. But on the other two sides, the pressure is working against them. The media is almost completely hostile to everything Republicans want to accomplish. So are the elites who shape our cultural, economic and educational institutions.

The combination of these forces creates the vise that restricts Republicans. It doesn’t matter how much the public supports what they’re trying to do. The other two forces work even more powerfully in the other direction. At every turn, the media and the elites pressure squishy Republicans to cave. As for Democrats, they know the opinion shapers and cocktail party hand-shakers have their backs, no matter what. With such powerful friends, why bother doing what the public demands?

Remember when immigrants were grateful to come to America? Elia Kazan celebrated this long ago in his 1960s movie “America America,” about his own family’s arrival on these shores. Victor Davis Hanson says it’s just not that way anymore in a piece headlined “Our New Ungracious Immigrants:”

[R]ecently, something has gone terribly wrong with immigration–an open border, of course, but also a change in legal immigration as well as student visitors….

Why would a rich, privileged Eileen Gu feel no discomfort competing for a murderous regime whose agenda is to displace her country from its global preeminence in favor of a communist dictatorship?

Is it because in our relativist modern America, Gu’s “truth” is just as meaningful as any other? And who, after all, is qualified to judge anything or anyone?

We are the Dr. Frankensteins who asked nothing of immigrants, in a complete break from our nation’s past.

And we got our wish for a new, quite different class of immigrants, who treated the U.S. the very way they were taught to do by the Left: as an evil entity that deserved what it got.

And we sure have gotten it.

A Blast From the Past. Migrant leader of the 1960s and liberal icon  Cesar Chavez is being accused of having committed serious abuse of women. In“The Horrible Truth Comes Out About Cesar Chavez,” National Review’s Jim Geraghty writes:

Everything named after Chavez is going to have to be renamed, Californians had better make plans to start going back to work on March 31, and it’s anyone’s guess as to what will happen to the Cesar E. Chavez National Monument.

Because it turns out that Cesar Chavez was a serial rapist and sexually pursued and molested girls as young as twelve, and groomed them from the ages of eight or nine.

Chavez movement associate Dolores Huerta kept quiet so as not to hurt the movement but says “My silence ends here.” Thanks, Delores, but it doesn’t really help any alleged victims now, does it?

Bombs: Fertility Bombs & Iran Bombs. Kings Are Okay: Politico Declares Pritzker a Kingmaker. York Declares Shutdown ‘Insane’. SAVE Update & More

Posted on by Charlotte Hays

We’ll get to the Iran war but let’s be daring and start today with the war on babies. You know, those critters who consume time and planetary resources.

Oscar Best Actress Jessie Buckley’s touching and unexpected tribute to the joy if motherhood served as the bookend to the death of a an influential intellectual whose powerful message was (I’m sort of boiling it down): Don’t have babies! You’ll mess up the planet!

It’s impossible to exaggerate the influence of Paul Ehrlich, author of “The Population Bomb”(1968). I suggest that Ehrlich single-handedly started the trend of women agonizing over whether to bring babies into this world. Unherd’s farewell to Ehrlich, who has died at the age of 93,  is headlined “The Professor Who Hated Babies.”  Eliot Haspel writes:

Ehrlich was catastrophically wrong, of course: since the book’s publication, the global population has swelled by nearly 5 billion, and no worldwide famine ensued. Ehrlich simply misunderstood the forces at play….

Even so, his ideas inspired millions of forced sterilizations in India, Peru, and other countries. Americans and Europeans, meanwhile, live with a more diffuse fallout: it is exceedingly difficult to have a productive conversation about birth rates despite the US fertility decline reaching historic levels, and nations like Italy and Spain facing rates so low that each successive generational cohort will be around half the size of its predecessor. …

Without an intentional effort to clean up the damage wrought by The Population Bomb, it will be nearly impossible to have a needed national conversation about births, and how we can create the conditions for as many people as possible to form the families they want, which, for many Americans, are larger than they actually have.

Ehrlich, in short, found teeming human life itself repulsive, and the lives of the poor, especially, as unworthy to live.

The New York Times obit (linked above) called Ehrlich “prescient,” but his other sendoffs have been less flattering. A Washington Post editorial is headlined “Paul Ehrlich Has Died. His Shock Waves Remain.” “The dire predictions in ‘Population Bomb’ are thoroughly discredited but still causing damage,” the Editors argue. “Ehrlich Was Wrong” is the succinct headline of a Corner item by National Review Editors.  “Paul Ehrlich Was Wrong—but He Still Changed the World” is the Free Press headline over a piece by Matt Ridley. And in the same outlet, Larissa Philips recounts her harrowing narrow escape in “I Almost Didn’t Survive ‘The Population Bomb’” which describes how her hippie parents dashed their hippie dream by having her (but they never regretted it).

Thanks to Jessie Buckley for carrying her countercultural message into the very Valley of the Woke. She is prescient.

The fabulous New York Post cover this morning is a pretend classified ad: “Help Wanted: New Iran Leader.” You’ve probably already heard that actuarial charts for Iranian leaders have taken a turn for the worse with the dispatch to virgin land of two top leaders. But the Supreme leader survives (apparently). If I were the sort of person (sniff, sniff) who says LOL, that’s what I’d say for this Washington Free Beacon headline:

Supremely Progressive: Iran Becomes First Nation in World History Led by Gay Amputee

Unlike the Free Beacon headline, this New York Times headline is not funny: “Joe Kent, a Top U.S. Counterterrorism Official, Resigns Over the Iran War.” Your first reaction might be that—oh my gosh—the administration is turning on itself! I can’t help but believe the headline writer would not be averse to this. But read down to paragraph ten-ish:

“Joe is the bravest man I know, and he can’t be dismissed as a nut,” Mr. Carlson said in a brief interview. “He’s leaving a job that gave him access to highest-level relevant intelligence. The neocons will now try to destroy him for that. He understands that and did it anyway.”

In other words, it is hardly surprising that Kent takes a dim view of the conflict. He is also described as a conspiracy theorist. National Review, which has been supportive of the Iran conflict, responded to Kent’s resignation this way: “Good Riddance.” In his resignation letter (also printed in the New York Times), Kent recalled that he is both a veteran and a Gold Star husband, who “lost my beloved wife Shannon in a war manufactured by Israel.”

While taking pains to describe Kent as a “beloved figure” and honoring his and his wife Shannon’s military service, Laura Ingraham and Joe Bongino pushed back on his criticisms of the Iran war. 

In other Iran headlines, the New York Post suggests Iran currently is being run by hardliners who will beget other hardliners. Israel is escalating attacks in Lebanon as Iran strikes near Tel Aviv. Israeli Prime Minister Netanyahu hopes strikes on Iran will inspire Iranians to overthrow their bloody regime. President Trump remains unhappy about the weak response from allies. Jamie McIntye writes at the DC Examiner that “jilted Trump will “lay the groundwork” to divorce NATO.

Giddy Politico headline: “King of Illinois: Pritzker swings Senate race as he targets Trump.” Governor JB Pritzker’s kingmaker status is awarded because he weighed in (no jokes) on Lt. Gov. Lt. Gov. Juliana Stratton, who won the Democratic Senate primary. Enquiring Minds Want to Know: Will Stratton curb the distinctive use of the all too frequent F-word in her ad campaign now that she’s hit the big time?

In a column headlined “There’s Only One Thing Voters Dislike More than Democrats,” USA TODAY columnist Ingrid Jaques argues that if the Dems hope to revamp their image before the midterms, they need to hit the brakes on its hard left turn. Jaques leads off with the Stratton F-Bomb ads. (I seem to have bombs on the brain this morning ….)

The Federalist does not seem overly optimistic about the immediate future of the SAVE America Act (which would impose on Americans the draconian burden of having IDs to vote). The Federalist predicts that as the act is debated in the Senate, we will witness “wall-to-wall Democrat lying and RINOs squirming in their seats at the thought of working more than two days a week.”

The Federalist, however, sees a glimmer of light in the fact that the act is finally being debated on the floor of the Senate—that’s a March Madness miracle in and of itself. Election law lawyer Joe Burns writes at The Hill that in the SAVE debate Democrats are being total hypocrites.

“The insane government shutdown” that has some DHS workers on the job without pay in a time of heightened danger is the subject of Examiner Chief Political correspondent Byron York today. He writes:

So far, nearly all TSA workers are staying on the job, but an estimated 300 have left TSA, and more will likely follow. Those staying on will be highly stressed. And on top of that, they will be required to deal with a threat situation that, because of world events, could be much more hazardous than usual.

This is crazy. In order to fund TSA and other agencies, Democrats demand that the Trump administration make “dramatic changes” in the way ICE operates. Among the Democrats’ demands are that ICE agents stop wearing masks, start wearing bodycams, and obtain judicial warrants for many of the cases they handle.

Cuba is experiencing all sorts of problems that open the doors for cooperation with the U.S.—and perhaps even the fall of a regime that has brought so much suffering to the Cuban people. But guess who else sees opportunity? The Democratic Socialists of America. “Why Is the DSA Making Friends with Communist Cuba?” is the headline on a story at City Journal by Stu Smith. The DSA is making something of a pet out of the designated sponsor of terror, according to Smith:

As the Trump administration ramps up pressure on Cuba, members of the Democratic Socialists of America are not standing on the sidelines. Through delegations to the island, aid campaigns, and high-profile partnerships with commentators like Hasan Piker, the DSA is working to provide both political and material support for the regime in Havana.

DSA’s sustained, national-level focus on Cuba is a relatively recent development. In 2019, after passing a resolution at its national convention, the organization formally joined the National Network on Cuba. The network is an umbrella coalition of left-wing groups committed to opposing U.S. military action, turning American public opinion against the longstanding American embargo, and pressing for a fundamental shift in U.S.-Cuban relations.

Looks like a hawk and dove. Curt Mills of the American Conservative (TAC) tells Christopher Rufo that the current Iran conflict is a mistake, while former CIA officer Martin Gurri writes at the New York Post that Trump’s global endeavors upend the world of impotent elites — and there’s no going back.

Don’t miss “The Amazing Adventures of Hannah the Plumber.” Julie Burchill profiles the Green Party’s newest MP who lives in her own pastel-colored bubble.

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.