March 18, 2026

UNVERIFIED BUT TOO GOOD TO CHECK:

Translation:

[President of Iran Masoud] Pezeshkian disavows any responsibilities and says he is “without authority, completely cut off from the leadership structures, and there is no justification for targeting him.”

A political advisor in a Gulf state confirmed that Iranian President Masoud Pezeshkian informed a number of his counterparts in the Arab Gulf and other countries, including Russia and Turkey, that “in light of the collapse of the constitutional leadership structure in the country and his disconnection from communicating with its components, he absolves himself of responsibility and emphasizes that there is no justification for targeting him.”

Pezeshkian fancies himself a moderate — whatever that means in the Islamic Republic regime — so who knows?

Posted at 5:07 pm by Stephen Green

THANKS FOR THE SUPPORT: I really appreciate a number of you ordering my book His Side recently. I sincerely appreciate it.

Posted at 4:51 pm by Helen Smith

DISPATCHES FROM THE GRAUNIAD’S FATWAH ON A LONDON BAKERY: The real reason the Guardian is so hostile to Gail’s.

Nothing good has ever followed the words ‘we need to talk’, ‘terms of service update’, or ‘by Jonathan Liew’, and the evidence is really piling up on the third one. The Guardian columnist has written a piece about Gail’s, the bougie coffee shop and bakery chain, and it vents hostility from every sentence like steam from an espresso machine. If you’re wondering how anyone – even a Guardian columnist – could get worked up over pricey lattes, Liew makes sure to tell us Gail’s was ‘founded by an Israeli baker in the 1990s’.

Yeah, it’s exactly what you think. Actually, it’s worse.

Gail’s has become a target for people The Spectator’s lawyers would probably prefer me to call ‘anti-Zionists’. People who have called for boycotts of the bakery over Palestine and what its opponents (because bakeries have opponents now) claim is its role in ‘gentrification’. The rationale for the Palestine-related boycott is that Bain Capital, Gail’s parent company, invests in cybersecurity firms based in Israel. As for the gentrification business, the vilification of Gail’s as a symbol of affluent outsiders who don’t belong here certainly seems to dovetail with the anti…Zionism.

Exit quote: “Jonathan Liew writes like someone who wants to be liked, keen to hit all the right notes so that people he regards as high-status regard him as one of them. It’s hardly the gravest sin. Most people want to be liked. The error of judgement here is on the part of the Guardian. A good editor would have read this and refused to let Liew embarrass himself or the paper.”

How it started:

How it’s going:

Posted at 4:30 pm by Ed Driscoll

A HUNDRED MILLION HERE AND HUNDRED MILLION THERE, AND SOONER OR LATER, YOU’RE TALKING ABOUT REAL MONEY: California’s unfinished wildlife ‘bridge to nowhere’ tops $100M.

In 2022, California Gov. Gavin Newsom broke ground on the Wallis Annenberg Wildlife Crossing (WAWC), a project featuring an overpass for animals atop ten lanes of the 101 Freeway in Southern California.

At the ceremony, Newsom boasted that the state had committed $54 million. He promised to “complete the job within another $10 million,” before seeming to hedge on whether that final sum would do the trick.

Officials projected a 2025 completion date for the overpass, and estimated that the entire project — which includes the bridge and other ancillary developments — would cost $92 million, some of it coming from private philanthropists.

Nearly four years after the ceremony, the bridge is past due and the project some $21 million over budget. What was supposed to be the world’s largest wildlife crossing has become a jobs program for environmentalists, with taxpayers on the hook for what WAWC leader Beth Pratt told us is an overpass “for everything from monarch butterflies to mountain lions.”

Pratt, a cougar-sweater-wearing environmental activist who serves on WAWC’s Partner Leadership Team, is the program’s public face. She is also a regional executive director of the national Wildlife Federation. In 2021, the group received a $25 million grant from “Wallis Annenberg and the Annenberg Foundation” for the bridge that bears the late philanthropist’s name.

Related: Bridges and Cougars and Butterflies, Oh MY! Chris Rufo Exposes Yet ANOTHER Gavin Newsom Boondoggle. “If you are asking yourself why butterflies could possibly need a bridge, then you are a sane person who is in no way qualified for elected office in California…Now we know why his cringy social media team is so mad at Nick Shirley.”

Posted at 4:14 pm by Ed Driscoll

THANKS, FELLAS:

Posted at 4:05 pm by Stephen Green

SAY ANYTHING:

Kyle Becker summed it up best in the replies: “These people are absolute freaking morons.”

Posted at 3:51 pm by Stephen Green

JOANNE JACOBS: Why teachers quit: ‘It was the wild West.’ “Another complained that behavior expectations kept changing. Instead of automatic punishments for disrespect, insubordination and violence, teachers were told to ‘have a buddy role.'”

Posted at 3:39 pm by Stephen Green

DON’T GET COCKY:

Posted at 3:34 pm by Stephen Green

MUCH MORE LIKE THIS, PLEASE:

Posted at 3:03 pm by Stephen Green

CHRISTIAN TOTO: Trump Effect? Oscar Ratings Crater in Second Term.

These celebrity galas often feast on anti-Trump lectures, be it those “ICE out” pins or mocking the First Family. The messages may differ, but the target is typically the same.

President Trump.

And, as a result, Hollywood, Inc. watched awards show ratings slump.

Their ratings stabilized somewhat during the Biden years, but with Trump back in office, the ratings decline resumed. Just look at the just-released Oscar numbers.

Also, Hollywood largely stopped making (and awarding) movies people want to see. Trump or no Trump, why tune in to see which movie you never even heard of won Best Picture?

Posted at 2:48 pm by Stephen Green

OLD AND BUSTED: Russian Election Interference.

The New Hotness? US intel hid Chinese 2020 election meddling from Trump because they opposed his policies, memo says. “Dr. Barry A. Zulauf, a member of the Senior National Intelligence Service reported that others in the intelligence community said ‘I don’t want my intelligence going to the White House where it will be used by that vulgarian in the Oval Office to support policies against China with which I personally disagree.’”

Posted at 2:35 pm by Ed Driscoll

IT WOULD TAKE A HEART OF STONE NOT TO LAUGH:

Posted at 2:32 pm by Stephen Green

IN THE WORDS OF CURTIS LEMAY, IF YOU KILL ENOUGH OF THEM, THE REST STOP FIGHTING: Iranian Intelligence Minister Who Led Assassination Plots Against US Officials Eliminated In Israeli Strike, IDF Says. “Israel on Wednesday killed Iran’s intelligence minister, Esmaeil Khatib, during an airstrike in Tehran, according to the Israel Defense Forces. Khatib orchestrated the violent crackdown on protesters earlier this year and ran an agency that attempted assassinations against U.S. officials.”

Posted at 2:22 pm by Ed Driscoll

UM…:

Posted at 2:02 pm by Stephen Green