Author Archive: Ed Driscoll

IT’S MORNING IN AMERICA:

UPDATE (FROM GLENN):

XI’S GOTTA HAVE IT:

IS THE NEW YORK TIMES A LIBERAL NEWSPAPER? OF COURSE IT IS:

(Classical reference in headline.)

 

IRANIAN STATE TELEVISION ANNOUNCED THE DEATH OF AYATOLLAH ALI KHAMENEI:

Iran’s Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei was killed on Saturday after the US and Israel launched massive aerial strikes on the capital Tehran.

An announcer appearing on state television broke down in tears early on Sunday as he confirmed the killing, saying the 86-year-old “achieved his long cherished wish of martyrdom in the holy month of Ramadan.”

“Today, Iran, the Islamic nations and freedom seekers across the world are grieving the evil attacks by the criminal Americans and wicked Zionists,” he said.

“The martyrdom of a personality of such great stature will begin a great uprising in the fight against the world’s oppressors,” he added.

The semi-official Fars news agency, which has links to the powerful Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps (IRGC), reported that Khamenei’s daughter, son-in-law and granddaughter were also killed in the strikes.

“After establishing contact with informed sources in the supreme leader’s household, the news of the martyrdom of the daughter, son-in-law and granddaughter of the revolutionary leader has unfortunately been confirmed,” it said.

Satellite imagery seen by Middle East Eye showed widespread destruction at the supreme leader’s compound after videos posted on social media showed black smoke billowing from the area.

Or to put it another way, “Every future meeting of Iran’s senior leadership now carries one question: does Israel know about this one too.

 

AND NOW A WORD FROM THE NEXT LEADER OF IRAN:

ROGER SIMON: Hope Was ALWAYS on the way.

Many had come to doubt President Trump’s assurance weeks ago to the brave Iranian freedom fighters that “help is on the way.” I admit I had moments I waffled over that time, though my wife, a stalwart, disabused me of them.

But Operation Epic Fury—called Roaring Lion by the Israelis and now roaring—appears to have been months in the most meticulous planning.

Now we know. Don’t doubt Trump. He’s a man of his word. The doubters, myself included to the small extent I was, can eat the requisite crow.

One way is to admit the truth: Donald Trump is no normal president. He is a historical figure of enormous proportions.

Of course, the naysayers came out almost immediately, from Ro Khanna to Tucker Carlson. Most were predictable. Trump is a slave of Israel. Trump isn’t America First, etc. Some claim Trump did not spell out his intentions when he certainly did, with total clarity, during his eight-minute speech announcing the attack.

It’s called regime change!

Whether these people were lying or simply deaf, dumb, and blind is hard to say.

The new MSM flagship, Axios, is already raising the flag for “off ramps” with the war not even a day old.

None of these, pols or media, that I know of, had spent much time, if any, with torture victims from Tehran’s Evin Prison as Sheryl and I had. These former democracy demonstrators’ faces looked like Picasso’s from the Cubist period, cheekbones bashed in, eyes plucked out, relatives and friends having died in jail. I would like to think that if the naysayers had seen them, they would sing a different song, but I doubt it. They prefer to preserve the mullahs’ rule for their own partisan or psychologically disturbed purposes.

The military operations should be successful, perhaps more quickly than many predict, but the major question is not whether the US and Israel can succeed at war against a weakened opponent. It is what happens after. Can a new Iran be built?

It’s up to the Iranians, almost everyone, including our government, is saying. I take their point. But you’ll have to excuse me if I put an asterisk.

Read the whole thing.

MARK STEYN: Persian Carpet-Bombing.

Israeli media report that he’s pushing up daisycutters. If it is correct that the US waited till every senior figure was attending the Spectre board meeting and then took them out in a single strike, that would be a remarkable start to any war. Whether or not the Islamic Republic’s leadership have gone to their virgins, in retaliation Tehran seems to be targeting Nigel Farage’s Reform UK leadership at their global HQ in Dubai:

Reform Treasurer Nick Candy today told how his hotel ‘shook’ as a devastating barrage of Iranian missiles and drones rained down on Dubai.

The billionaire property developer was on one of the upper floors of the Bulgari Resort in Jumeria Bay, Dubai, when one of a series of missiles struck.

The Reform Deputy Leader’s squeeze is also under barrage in Dubai.

The ayatollahs have also struck the headquarters of the US Fifth Fleet in Bahrain, and killed at least one person in strikes on the Emirates, Qatar and Kuwait. There are conflicting reports of forty dead after the USAF hit a girls’ primary school, which is sure to go down well with Ilhan Omar and other child-care specialists. On the other hand, a view from the streets:

Read the whole thing.

THANK YOU FOR YOUR ATTENTION TO THIS MATTER: Trump’s Truth Social Statement On Khamenei’s Death.

OBAMA COORDINATE! OBAMA COORDINATE!

REPORT:

UPDATE:

MORE:

DISPATCHES FROM M-SNOW: LOL: Capehart Claims ‘The Media Isn’t Necessarily Liberal.’

MS NOW host Jonathan Capehart works for a network that openly presents itself as an outlet for progressives, but when he joined Friday’s PBS News Hour to discuss Paramount’s acquisition of Warner Bros.—which would include CNN—Capehart hilariously claimed “that the media isn’t necessarily liberal.”

Host Geoff Bennett actually kicked things off with The Atlantic writer and podcaster David Brooks, “And if the deal closes, it means that one family, in this case, the family that has been so far deferential to President Trump, would control CBS, CNN, HBO, and TikTok. How do you see it?”

Flashback: How David Brooks Created Donald Trump.

REGARDING THE MULLAHS, YOU DO NOT, UNDER ANY CIRCUMSTANCES, “GOTTA HAND IT TO THEM:”


Classical allusion in headline:

DISPATCHES FROM THE BAR STOOL:

Portnoy links to this tweet from the White House:

NOT ANTI-WAR, JUST ON THE OTHER SIDE:

The remnants of the Weekly Standard are likely still processing it all:

As are the remnants of the Obama administration:

And the gang at M-SNOW:

Plus, strange new respect for Tucker from the establishment left:

As Steve tweets:

GREAT MOMENTS IN GASLIGHTING:

“We’ve been told to aim our reporting at a particular part of the political spectrum. Honestly, I don’t know how to do that.” Really? Because over the decades Walter Cronkite, Dan Rather, Katie Couric, John Dickerson, and Scott Pelley have been masters at it.

A CRIMINAL ORGANIZATION MASQUERADING AS A POLITICAL PARTY:

(Classical reference in headline.)

OUT ON A LIMB:

Perhaps it’s time to finally implement Andrew Klavan’s One State Solution to the Middle East:

MARK HEMINGWAY: Model City: Portland’s Journey From Symbol of Chic to Shabby.

If you’re familiar with the recent history of Portland – I am a third-generation Oregonian who has lived in the city – it was once the epicenter of urban cool. In 2009, there was so much tourism that The Oregonian newspaper ran a column headlined, “Sorry, NYT, We’re Just Not That Into You,” grousing that all the glowing national press about the city was making it harder for locals to get into their favorite restaurants. By the time the popular comedy show “Portlandia” premiered in 2011, the city was a genuine cultural phenomenon.

Last fall, after the city acquired a reputation for crime, homelessness, and dysfunction, Oregon politicians rushed to media outlets to assure the nation that the city was not literally on fire. They were responding to comments from President Trump, who said, “the place is burning down, just burning down,” following violent protests outside of an Immigration and Customs Enforcement facility. CNN ran a “fact check” on Trump’s multiple statements about the city burning.

Oregon politicians were probably right that the president’s hyperbole was not helping defuse a tense situation. And unlike other cities famous for urban blight, Portland is still a beautiful place to live. Located at the base of 11,000-foot-tall Mt. Hood, and built around two major rivers, it has one of the most spectacular natural settings of any city in America. Last fall, Oregon Sen. Ron Wyden traveled around the city and posted videos highlighting the picturesque neighborhoods to show that Portland can be a wonderful place to live, in contrast to Trump’s claim that the city is “war-ravaged.”

But in a figurative sense – and at least one literal sense – Trump is right. Portland is constantly on fire. In the year following July 2024, Portland had 6,268 fire-related incidents – and 40% of the fires in the city are a direct result of Portland’s out-of-control vagrancy.

Even city leaders feel the heat. In 2024, Portland City Councilor Rene Gonzalez’s car burned in a fire that authorities believe was intentionally set while it was parked in front of his family’s home. No one was arrested, but a website associated with Portland’s notorious Antifa network claimed responsibility. Then last October, a fire consumed a carport belonging to Portland City Councilor Candace Avalos, burning her car and damaging the side of her house. Authorities eventually determined the fire was started by a vagrant trying to stay warm.

The city also has much more sophisticated criminal problems. As Minneapolis uncovers evidence that it has lost billions of dollars in fraudulent schemes by the city’s Somali community, Jeff Eager, the former mayor of Bend, Oregon, has published a series of alarming reports revealing that Portland may have a similar large-scale problem with its welfare programs – some of it connected to more menacing kinds of organized crime.

Read the whole thing, which has rare bipartisan approval:

UPDATE:

HERE WE GO:

Exit quote: “When an ambassador tells his own people to leave the country he is assigned to, he is not managing risk. He is clearing the blast radius.”