Author Archive: Ed Driscoll

April 12, 2026

THIS IS THE EQUIVALENT OF SACRAMENTO’S “TRAVEL BANS” TO THE RED STATES:

Posted at 8:35 pm by Ed Driscoll on Apr 12th, 2026

ORBÁN CONCEDES DEFEAT IN HUNGARIAN ELECTION:

Viktor Orbán, Hungary’s pro-Russian prime minister, conceded defeat on Sunday, bringing an end to his authoritarian 16-year rule after an election seen as the Europe’s most consequential election this year.

Peter Magyar, the 45-year-old leader of the centre-Right Tisza party, won a landslide victory and promised to repair relations with the EU and Nato, which were badly strained by Mr Orbán’s blocking of policies helpful to Ukraine.

In the campaign, the Fidesz party leader accused Volodymyr Zelensky and Ursula von der Leyen, the European Commission president, of plotting with Mr Magyar to drag Hungary into the war.

“Together we have freed Hungary,” Mr Magyar told a delirious crowd of supporters on the banks of the Danube, “My friends you have worked a miracle. Hungary has written history.”

Worst. Autocrat. Ever:

But is the globalist left celebrating a little too much and too early?

Posted at 8:14 pm by Ed Driscoll on Apr 12th, 2026

I DON’T THINK THE BIG BANG THEORY WAS INTENDED TO BE A HOW-TO GUIDE FOR HOSPITAL ROBOTICS:

Deploy the Shelbots!

To be fair, the Shelbots are brilliant tailors as well. They were the forerunners of the oversize suit craze of the 1980s:

 

Posted at 12:45 pm by Ed Driscoll on Apr 12th, 2026

ROBERT SPENCER: Truth-Teller Encounters the Buzz-Saw of the Establishment Narrative.

What happens when someone dissents from the leftist establishment narrative in a way that is so compelling and convincing that the continued wide acceptance of that narrative is imperiled? What happens is that the leftist media establishment deploys its strongest rhetorical weapons against the offender, hoping to destroy or at least cripple the dissident before he or she is able to amass a significant following, or to dishearten and disperse that following if it already exists. This is why the April 2026 issue of Tablet magazine contains a massive article, over 6,000 words long, damning with faint praise the pioneering scholar of dhimmitude, Bat Ye’or.

Former New York Times writer Judith Miller, who for decades has been a reliable conduit for the establishment line, pulls out all the stops to ensure that her readers will come away with the idea that Bat Ye’or, for all her admirable qualities, is a bit of a nutter. It is a shabby way to treat one of the great thinkers of our age, and demonstrates how deeply threatened the academic left is in the face of the truths Bat Ye’or has uncovered.

Read the whole thing.

Posted at 12:30 pm by Ed Driscoll on Apr 12th, 2026

NEVILLE AGAIN:

 

On Friday, London Telegraph columnist Jake Wallis Simons wrote: Starmer has just shown the world what a truly pathetic leader he is.

At least Neville Chamberlain had rhetoric. The phrase may have represented the nadir of British appeasement, but “peace for our time” had a lovely ring to it. Keir Starmer, however, probably finds its resonances with the Book of Common Prayer distasteful, given that modern Britain is for “people of all faiths and none”. So he plumped for “fed up” instead.

“I’m fed up with the fact that families across the country see their bills go up and down on energy, businesses’ bills go up and down on energy,” he told Robert Peston in the Gulf. Forgive me if I do a little sick. The Prime Minister didn’t seem to mind when, thanks to Ed Miliband, Britain had the highest industrial electricity prices in the OECD even before the war in Iran. But when prices rise because of a struggle against the most evil regime on Earth? That gets right up his nose.

If I were an Iranian parent, say, who had lost a child when the regime massacred more than 30,000 people in 48 hours in January, or a relative of a victim of Tehran’s recent surge in executions, my sympathies for Starmer’s irritation at rising domestic bills might be limited.

The inevitable made-for-Netflix movie depicting Starmer as the eight-dimensional chess playing mastermind of Operation Epic Fury should make for mind-blowing viewing.

Posted at 12:14 pm by Ed Driscoll on Apr 12th, 2026

TRUMP ANNOUNCES BLOCKADE OF STRAIT OF HORMUZ AFTER IRAN PEACE TALKS COLLAPSE:

President Trump on Sunday announced plans to blockade the Strait of Hormuz after negotiations in Pakistan to end the Iran war collapsed.

“Effective immediately, the United States Navy, the Finest in the World, will begin the process of BLOCKADING any and all Ships trying to enter, or leave, the Strait of Hormuz,” Trump said in a post on Truth Social. “The Blockade will begin shortly. Other Countries will be involved with this Blockade. Iran will not be allowed to profit off this Illegal Act of EXTORTION.”

The president said the blockade will be enforced in an effort to stop Iran from policing the strait to its economic benefit while other countries suffer.

“At some point, we will reach an ‘ALL BEING ALLOWED TO GO IN, ALL BEING ALLOWED TO GO OUT’ basis, but Iran has not allowed that to happen by merely saying, ‘There may be a mine out there somewhere,’ that nobody knows about but them,” he said. “THIS IS WORLD EXTORTION, and Leaders of Countries, especially the United States of America, will never be extorted.”

He additionally said the U.S. Navy will “seek and interdict every vessel in International Waters that has paid a toll to Iran.”

Earlier: “Iran played its biggest card and the main result is that the United States became the world’s emergency gas station and China’s cheap energy subsidy evaporated. This is either the most elaborate coincidence in the history of geopolitics… or someone planned the sequence Venezuela -> Iran -> profits!”

Posted at 12:00 pm by Ed Driscoll on Apr 12th, 2026

GEORGE MF WASHINGTON: When Hollywood Did It Right: Pirates of the Caribbean.

Will Turner’s fire is lit, his adventure begun, with the help of another classic story trope… the older wiser mentor figure who is at best wildly eccentric and at worst completely insane. This trope too goes back to the very beginning of Western storytelling, but we see it very clearly in many of today’s most popular mass entertainment franchises, some of which are still throwing off sequels, prequels and reboots, from “Star Wars” to “The Matrix” to “Point Break” to “Highlander.” The twist with “Pirates of the Caribbean” is that Johnny Depp did too good a job with Captain Jack Sparrow and accidentally whoopsied himself right into the lead role.

But that was merely a happy accident. Like “Star Wars” and all those other enduring movie examples which we could name, “Pirates of the Caribbean” is a classic male-oriented adventure in both form and function, and that is precisely why it worked so well.

Which brings me to the female lead, Elizabeth Swann, played by Kiera Knightley. Elizabeth is beautiful, of course, but also smart, funny and capable… she is for all intents and purposes a classic Hollywood “modern woman.” But here is the most critical piece, she is a modern woman within the context of the world in which she lives… a world that is a Georgian Era Patriarchy which exists on a distant island colony run with ruthless discipline by the officers and men of the Royal Navy. As such, the men in Elizabeth’s orbit do not cower before her superior intellect, nor are they driven to their knees by her unparalleled strength and wisdom. And she is certainly not a ninety-five pound Scarlett Johansson throwing two hundred and seventy pound men across rooms like they were Jenga blocks.

Elizabeth Swann is simply a woman, emotional and flawed and heroic, in all the ways we used to understand makes a woman, in the days before The Culture decided that being a woman was not enough.

And now I’m going to write something that should not be controversial, but which has become so here in our highly politicized “modern culture.” I’m going to write very clearly and deliberately so that I cannot be misunderstood… and yet I will be misunderstood, deliberately so, because the activists whose grift is based on pretending to misunderstand the most fundamental things about human nature can allow it to be no other way, lest their lucrative grift collapse entirely.

So, here goes… men and women are fundamentally different and often want different things from the entertainment they consume. Generally speaking, women are not as interested in adventure movies like “Pirates of the Caribbean” as men are, and are less likely to pay to see them in theaters. Notice I did not say all women are disinclined to see these kinds of movies, I said that generally speaking, men prefer them more than women do.

By the same token, the audiences for movies like “Hamnet” and “Wuthering Heights” are overwhelmingly female, something I have never heard anyone suggest is a societal problem that needs to be remedied by fundamental industry-wide changes in the way those movies are developed and made. And yet this is precisely what has happened at companies like Marvel, DC and Lucasfilm, where the stubborn refusal of women to attend action-adventure movies in the same numbers as men is treated like some kind of national emergency. When it comes to romantic dramas, on the other hand, we seem to understand that men and women want different things from the movies they consume… and that’s OK.

(Slight pause so that all those readers who have just fainted can be revived)

We good? Everyone still with me?

Keep your fainting couch nearby and read the whole thing.

Posted at 10:52 am by Ed Driscoll on Apr 12th, 2026

DISPATCHES FROM THE MEMORY HOLE:

So why now? California ended up “with eight Democrat candidates and two GOP candidates in the primary, and depending on what poll you consult, it is possible that two Republican candidates might emerge as the two top primary winners, guaranteeing a Republican governor emerges in the general election. In other words, the distorted, undemocratic system installed in California by the Democrat majority is backfiring on them, and now they are scrambling to save themselves—and the only way to do that is to dilute or eliminate the support to one of the leading Democrat candidates, thereby kicking that support to another Democrat, thereby guaranteeing that at least one Democrat is on the ballot in November for the two-candidate general election. And Eric Swalwell is the designated fall guy.”

Posted at 8:45 am by Ed Driscoll on Apr 12th, 2026

CHRISTIAN TOTO: Will Public Accept Sanitized Michael Biopic?

The April 24 release was slated to begin in 1993, when Jackson was first accused of sexually inappropriate contact with a minor.

Not anymore.

Those moments, and others allegedly shot for the movie, didn’t make the final cut, according to Variety. Nor did other problematic chapters of his life.

But the sequence with investigators who arrive at Neverland Ranch to search for evidence is one of many that were left on the cutting room floor. “Michael,” which Lionsgate will release in the United States on April 24, was supposed to explore the impact of the allegations on Jackson’s life, with much of its third act devoted to the scandal. But that finale was scrapped, along with any mention of the child molestation accusations, according to sources with knowledge of the production.

Why?

Variety ticks off two reasons. One, recent Jackson projects have done something similar, and the public outcry has been limited or non-existent.

Two, the legalese tied to the movie helped make this sanitized version possible.

The third, unofficial reason? Team Jackson had a heavy hand in the production and is invested in the film’s financial future. And the King of Pop’s, too.

Will the public cry foul or marinate in the memories? Those box office predictions suggest the latter.

Flashback: The sexual predators everyone still worships.

Posted at 8:14 am by Ed Driscoll on Apr 12th, 2026

“SO TO SUMMARIZE: Iran played its biggest card and the main result is that the United States became the world’s emergency gas station and China’s cheap energy subsidy evaporated.”This is either the most elaborate coincidence in the history of geopolitics… or someone planned the sequence Venezuela -> Iran -> profits! I’ll let you figure out which one.”

Posted at 7:45 am by Ed Driscoll on Apr 12th, 2026

GREAT MOMENTS IN HARD-HITTING INVESTIGATIVE JOURNALISM:

Tavares describes himself in his X profile as “Undisputed champion of East Bay politics. Author of East Bay Insiders, the must-read newsletter for East Bay political and local govt watchers.”

Guys, say it with me: Just think of the media as Democratic Party operatives with bylines, and it all makes sense.

Evergreen:

Posted at 7:14 am by Ed Driscoll on Apr 12th, 2026

April 11, 2026

QUESTION ASKED ABOUT ASKING QUESTIONS: How does a BBC interviewer “run out of questions when you’re sitting across from [Elon Musk,] the guy who wants to make humanity multi-planetary, built Tesla, and bought Twitter because he believes free speech is existential for society?”

Posted at 5:45 pm by Ed Driscoll on Apr 11th, 2026

FAR LEFT MAINE SENATE CANDIDATE COMPARES U.S. MARINES TO NAZI PARTY:

(The tattoo doesn’t “resemble a Nazi symbol” it is one: My Little Totenkopf.)

Posted at 5:30 pm by Ed Driscoll on Apr 11th, 2026

WORLD ENDS; WOMEN, MINORITIES, SAME-SEX COUPLES HARDEST HIT:

 

Posted at 5:14 pm by Ed Driscoll on Apr 11th, 2026

BOMB CANADA, THE CASE FOR WAR:

(Classical reference in headline.)

Posted at 4:45 pm by Ed Driscoll on Apr 11th, 2026

GOODER AND HARDER, CALIFORNIA:

Posted at 4:30 pm by Ed Driscoll on Apr 11th, 2026

FENWAY PARK VIDEO SHOWS THE AMERICA WE LOST: “After receiving almost 10 million views, the video was so flooded with pointed comments that Fenway had to lock it. The message was clear: The America in the video exposed the unmistakable decline of our current nation. Millions of viewers saw it and immediately understood why.”

Predictably, the first instinct of critics on the left was to cry racism over these heartfelt reactions to a lost America. It is true that the crowds in the footage were overwhelmingly white. Therefore, the argument goes, any longing that scene stirs in people must be rooted in racism and xenophobia, rather than a recognition of the defects of our current cultural reality.

This is a lazy, intellectually dishonest dodge. Race is not the point; assimilation is. The people in that 1950s footage were, in many cases, themselves first- or second-generation Americans—Irish, Italian, Polish, Jewish, among others. They were people whose parents or grandparents had arrived here through Ellis Island. They did not come to recreate the old country on American soil, transforming it. They came to become American—to transform themselves. They learned the language, embraced the civic norms, cheered on the same teams as their neighbors, and played by the same unwritten rules that made public spaces safe and orderly. Baseball was not merely entertainment. It was a sacrament of a shared American identity.

That unifying force is precisely what is missing today. Boston Mayor Michelle Wu—who was booed loudly along with Governor Maura Healey on the field at Opening Day—recently declared that “you cannot talk about any achievement that the city of Boston has had … without talking about the Somali community that has lifted our city up.” The Fenway video is a devastating rebuttal to her. There are no Somalis visible in those 1950s stands—nor could there have been, given the timeline.

Boston was already a thriving, safe city then—long before the mass migration waves of recent decades. Wu’s historically inaccurate boast is not just pandering, but a symptom of our so-called elites’ refusal to acknowledge that America’s greatness was built by those who bought into its culture, not by those who were imported to transform it.

Make America this again:

Posted at 2:14 pm by Ed Driscoll on Apr 11th, 2026

AN INCONVENIENT SHARKNADO: Why Adam McKay’s Thrash Drowns in Climate Fearmongering.

There are two distinct signs that Climate Change fearmonger Adam McKay produced the shark thriller “Thrash.”

The creative team gave him a shout-out with a McKay-themed tanker that spills its cargo early in the film. And the story never stops reminding us that we helped make the movie’s signature storm a reality.

Where’s that Al Gore cameo when you need it?

“Thrash” is still an unabashed B-movie, and it works best by leaning into those genre tics. The story simply doesn’t know whether to let loose or keep reminding us why we need to reduce our carbon footprint, and stat.

(Except China can do what it pleases…)

In the last decade, I’d ask when will Hollywood lower its own carbon footprint by cutting its output? Fortunately for all concerned, 2020 and Gavin Newsom has forced them to do just that. If it saves just one person from the eco-apocalypse…

Posted at 1:44 pm by Ed Driscoll on Apr 11th, 2026

COMCAST-APPROVED: ‘That Ain’t My Party:’ Al Sharpton Says It Would Be ‘Crazy’ for Black People To Celebrate America’s 250th as 2028 Dem Hopefuls Pay Homage to Him.

“They’re going to celebrate the 250th anniversary of the country July 4, but that’s not our celebration. We was—we were slaves then, and they celebrate signing the Declaration of Independence 1776,” said Sharpton.

“It seems crazy for me to have on the birthday hat at your birthday party. That ain’t my party,” said Sharpton, who later claimed that “white kids” have not been taught the history of slavery in schools.

“So when white kids hear us talking about reparations or affirmative action,” he went on, “they think it’s an attack ’cause they don’t know what their granddaddy did to us.”

Racial issues were front and center at the convention, in which Sharpton held “fireside chats” with nine Democrats considering presidential bids in 2028. In addition to Harris, Moore, and Pritzker, Sharpton interviewed Pennsylvania governor Josh Shapiro, California congressman Ro Khanna, Arizona senator Ruben Gallego, and others. Sharpton in those interviews focused largely on issues like DEI and investment in black businesses, avoiding hot-button topics like the United States’ 250th birthday celebration and reparations for slavery.

Harris gave the strongest indication of any in the group that she will run in 2028.

“I might,” she told Sharpton on Friday when asked whether she will launch a third presidential bid. “I’m thinking about it.”

The Democrats who appeared at the convention did so in spite of Sharpton’s lengthy record of inflammatory anti-white and anti-Semitic remarks. The activist gained notoriety in the 1980s for representing Tawana Brawley, a black woman who falsely accused white NYPD officers of raping her. In 1991, shortly after forming the National Action Network, Sharpton helped stoke the Crown Heights riots, in which rioters in Brooklyn targeted Jewish businesses and murdered an Orthodox Jew. After the riots ended, Sharpton derogatorily referred to the neighborhood’s Hasidic Jewish population as “the diamond merchants in Crown Heights.”

Last week, Democratic Party house organ Axios claimed, “Dems weighing 2028 campaigns run from 2020 positions.” The Democratic presidential candidate who has a Sister Souljah-style break from Al Sharpton’s decades of toxic politics would go far in signaling that the he or she has moved past the 2020 woke-era.

In the meantime, though:

Posted at 1:14 pm by Ed Driscoll on Apr 11th, 2026

“CHINA IS SMILING WATCHING AMERICA’S PUNDIT IMBECILES:”

UPDATE:

“Supreme leader dead, Iranian air force destroyed, nuclear sites attacked again. The Navy of Iranian Revolutionary government at the bottom of the ocean. These are not small things. It’s not the case that the Iranian Revolutionary government has come out of this well.”

Posted at 12:55 pm by Ed Driscoll on Apr 11th, 2026

HOW WILL THE EU HANDLE A TWO-FRONT WAR? VERY BADLY:

Posted at 12:30 pm by Ed Driscoll on Apr 11th, 2026
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