Author Archive: Ed Driscoll

CAPTAIN OF THE SOMALI PIRATES HAS THOUGHTS:

Fair enough; this one has being going on since 1979:

I know he’s just turned 86, but I’d love to get a quote from Ted Koppel about today’s events: Feb. 28, 2026: The Day Trump Paid the Mullahs Back — and Gave Persians a Chance.

UPDATE: Iran’s Top 20 Attacks On The West, From Carter to Obama and Biden.

BOTTOM STORY OF THE DAY: Iran’s soccer federation head doubts country will play in 2026 World Cup after US-Israeli strikes.

The president of Iran’s soccer federation says he does not know if the national team can play World Cup matches in the United States following the surprise US and Israeli bombardment of his country.

“What is certain is that after this attack, we cannot be expected to look forward to the World Cup with hope,” Mehdi Taj told sports portal Varzesh3 as Iran traded strikes with Israel as part of a widening war prompted by the bombardment.

The US-Israeli strikes on Iran continued for a second day on Sunday after the killing of Iranian Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei threw the future of the Islamic Republic into uncertainty and raised the risk of regional instability.

Time to fire up the Dacia Sandero in response:

ON TONIGHT’S TOP GEAR, THE STIG POWER TESTS JAGUAR’S NEW RECREATION OF THEIR LEGENDARY D-TYPE THAT WON LE MANS IN 1957!

Much like Anheuser-Busch producing a Super Bowl commercial with Clydesdales, eagles, Lynyrd Skynyrd’s “Freebird,” and good ole boys rather than Dylan Mulveney, presumably Tata Motors, the Indian company that owns Jaguar is reissuing some of their classics and inviting drivers like Ben Collins to film road tests for YouTube in the hopes that they can put this 2024 monstrosity behind them:

 

From December: Report: Executive Who Spearheaded Jaguar’s Woke Genderbender Rebrand Fired, Escorted Out of Building by Security.

NOAH POLLAK: “One of Trump’s greatest legacies will be how he blew up a half-century of western diffidence, restraint, and failure on terrorism.”

Blowing up a half-century of western diffidence, restraint, and failure is pretty much Trump’s wheelhouse, as Glenn wrote in 2022: Donald Trump and America’s New Class War.

IT’S SATIRE…OR IS IT?

ITS ORIGIN AND PURPOSE, STILL A TOTAL MYSTERY: 3 dead, 14 injured in Austin shooting; suspect identity confirmed as Senegal national.

Three people are dead and 14 others are injured following a mass shooting at Buford’s on West 6th Street early Sunday, officials said. The suspect was fatally shot by police officers at the scene.

CBS News has confirmed the identity of the suspect as Ndiaga Diagne, a naturalized American citizen born in Senegal.

The FBI is now involved with the investigation into the shooting, authorities confirmed at a press conference around 9:30 a.m. Sunday morning.

It takes Austin’s CBS affiliate 16 paragraphs to get to these details:

Related:

WHIP INFLATION NOW!

Shot:

In 1964, the first heroic period of the Space Age was just opening; the United States had set the Moon as its target, and once that decision had been made, the ultimate conquest of the other planets, appeared inevitable. By 2001, it seemed quite reasonable that there would be giant space-stations in orbit round the Earth and—a little later—manned expeditions to the planets. In an ideal world, that would have been possible: the Vietnam War would have paid for everything that Stanley Kubrick showed on the Cinerama screen.

—Excerpt from Arthur C. Clarke’s 1982 epilogue to his 1968 novelization of 2001: A Space Odyssey. 

Chaser:

(Classical reference in headline.)

HEH, INDEED:

WE WIN. THEY LOSE:

(Classical reference in headline.)

WE’VE DESCENDED INTO SOME SORT OF BIZARRE HELL-WORLD IN WHICH BOY GEORGE IS A VOICE OF SANITY:

I’M SORRY, GIVEN HOW LONG IT TOOK TO BUILD UP OUR MIDDLE EAST ARMADA, THE PROTESTORS COULD HAVE AT LEAST ASSEMBLED SOME GIANT PAPIER-MÂCHÉ PUPPETS:

Tweet continues, “Communism is a cult without a God. It demands your entire life in service to them. You’re seeing that there are a lot of Communists out there who are dedicated to destroying the country.

Including feminist and clean energy icon Jane Fonda, who is all-in to mourn the oil-rich mullahs:

UPDATE:

ANOTHER AUSTERE RELIGIOUS SCHOLAR MOURNED BY THE WAPO: WashPost Touts Khamenei as Man With an ‘Easy Smile’ and Love of ‘Poetry.’

In the wake of Iranian Supreme Leader Aylatollah Khamenei coming down with a killer headache after getting a U.S. warhead on his forehead, on Saturday, The Washington Post published one of their infamous glowing remembrances of Islamic terrorists. The paper fondly remembered the brutal Islamic dictator as a “avuncular figure” with an “easy smile” and love for “Persian poetry.”

Readers might remember when The Post fluffed up the former leader of ISIS as an “austere religious scholar”; well, they back at it again with Khamenei in their obituary titled: “Ayatollah Ali Khamenei, Iran’s supreme leader, is dead at 86.”

The sub-headline brushed over Khamenei’s authoritarian rule: “He played a behind-the-scenes role in Iran’s Islamic revolution, served as president in the 1980s and dominated the country for more than three decades.”

“Ayatollah Ali Khamenei, the Shiite Muslim cleric who played a behind-the-scenes role in Iran’s Islamic revolution, served two terms as president in the 1980s and dominated the country for more than three decades as supreme leader, was killed Saturday as Israel and the United States launched a joint attack on Iran. He was 86,” wrote William Branigin.

Flashback: Washington Post faces backlash for headline calling ISIS terrorist ‘austere religious scholar.’

UPDATE:

 

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:

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