March 18, 2026

SOCIAL MEDIA — OR AT LEAST X — IS THE PLACE TO GIVE THEM THE ATTENTION THEY DESERVE:

Posted at 10:55 am by Stephen Green

BIPARTISAN HOUSE BILL WOULD BOOST SPENDING TRANSPARENCY: A potentially landmark bill requiring faster public disclosure of federal spending is being introduced today by Republican Representatives Josh Brecheen of Oklahoma, Chip Roy and Michael Cloud of Texas, Clay Higgins of Louisiana and Nick Begich of Arkansas, plus Democrat Jimmie Panetta of California. Check out my exclusive story in The Washington Stand.

Posted at 10:50 am by Mark Tapscott

MAKE IRAN ZOROASTRIAN AGAIN: Defiant Iranians celebrate ancient fire festival despite war.

As dusk falls across Iran on Tuesday, bonfires, fireworks and street gatherings take place to mark Chaharshanbeh Suri, an ancient fire festival that has also become a public act of defiance, this year unfolding under war, heavy security and fears of bloodshed.

Iranian authorities have issued stark warnings ahead of Chaharshanbeh Suri, pointing to what they describe as wartime conditions and the risk of unrest.

Nevertheless, Iranians celebrated the festival.

I guess stark warnings don’t mean much right now.

Posted at 10:40 am by Stephen Green

CHANGE?

Posted at 10:24 am by Stephen Green

EVERY BEST PICTURE OSCAR-WINNER, RANKED:

90. Everything Everywhere All at Once (2023)

Daniels Kwan and Scheinert’s tiresome comic drama about parallel dimensions and roads not travelled tries to be everything to all audiences: a piercing portrayal of the immigrant experience, plus disquisition on generational trauma/neurodivergence/insert-issue-of-the fortnight-here, with Power Rangers fights, superhero franchise tropes, and homages to Wong Kar-wai.

Should have won: Top Gun: Maverick or Tár

89. Gandhi (1983)

Everyone felt it was important to like Gandhi – and agreed that Ben Kingsley was tremendous in it. Richard Attenborough enlisted a pedigree supporting cast (Trevor Howard, John Gielgud, John Mills, Michael Hordern) and ranks of extras (300,000 for the funeral procession alone), but the net result is a Western-centric, sanitised view of a complex life. It also goes on forever.

Should have won: Even Attenborough admitted that E.T.: The Extra-Terrestrial was robbed.

Flashback: “The Gandhi Nobody Knows,” Richard Grenier 1983 Commentary article, one of the greatest film reviews/demolition jobs ever written.

Posted at 10:22 am by Ed Driscoll

THE ENEMY WITHIN:

China is a problem. But certain parts of the intel community are a bigger and more immediate problem.

Posted at 9:53 am by Stephen Green

THIS IS CNN: CNN’s Man in Iran Tacitly Admits He Had a ‘Minder’ Who Informed Regime.

CNN had repeatedly insisted that senior international correspondent Fred Pleitgen and the network maintained “full editorial control” about what they reported when the former was in inside Iran. But, in an interview with the U.K.-based newspaper The Guardian, which was less of an interview and more just answering prompts, Pleitgen asserted that he and his cameraman didn’t have a “minder” lurking over them. Yet, when he described who guided him around and what he was allowed to see, it very much sounded like a minder.

“Did you have a minder? Were you taken around by someone?” asked Guardian’s media and power reporter Jeremey Barr. A minder in this case being someone who worked with/for the regime who would shadow or guide a foreign journalist, who would only show them what the regime wanted, or to be a constant reminder the regime was in control over their stay and life.

Pleitgen initially suggest they CNN didn’t have a minder, but they did have “a guy” who showed them around and translated. He began to say the guy “obviously” had some sort of duty before cutting himself off and noting that the regime had asked the guy not to show them certain places.

Read the whole, and remember that this kind of thing is nothing new for the network: How CNN hid the truth about Saddam and betrayed the world.

Posted at 9:38 am by Stephen Green

NIFTY:

Although I’d be surprised if the Pentagon (and Israel, too) hadn’t already figured this one out.

Posted at 9:22 am by Stephen Green

KRUISER’S MORNING BRIEFING: I SO Did Not Have ‘Gayatollah’ Khamenei on My Bingo Card. “Please believe me, dear readers, that I desperately want to be more mature about this story because this is a newsletter, after all. Then again, I am the snarky opinion guy around here and you’re all familiar with my observational peculiarities. Please know that my tongue is being figuratively bitten to avoid any fanciful pictures I might want to paint about a mullah bath house that pipes in Adam Lambert music all day.”

Posted at 9:07 am by Stephen Green

BLUE STATE BLUES:

Posted at 8:51 am by Stephen Green

THE MACHINE HASN’T QUIT PROTECTING THE LEFT:

Posted at 8:38 am by Glenn Reynolds

DON SURBER: The Little Orange Rooster “’Not I,’ said the NATO nations who forgot 102,839 Americans died protecting freedom since World War II.”

What are the odds that Trump puts a tariff-like “security fee” on all oil transiting the Strait of Hormuz? . . .

Posted at 8:37 am by Glenn Reynolds

DON’T LET UP NOW: ‘Worst of the worst’: Latest ICE roundup nabs murderers, pedophiles.

The Department of Homeland Security (DHS) on Tuesday announced the arrest of several violent criminals, including convicted murderers and pedophiles, as part of its latest “worst of the worst” roundup.

The “worst of the worst” series is part of an effort by DHS to highlight the criminal nature of Immigration and Customs Enforcement’s (ICE) priority targets amid President Donald Trump’s mass deportation efforts.

“Yesterday, ICE arrested criminal illegal alien murderers, pedophiles and sex criminals – the very definition of depraved,” acting Assistant Secretary Lauren Bis said. “Under President Trump, if you come to our country illegally and break our laws, we will find you and arrest you. There is nothing that will stop ICE from putting American families, American children and American lives FIRST.”

Trump has set a goal of deporting as many as 22 million illegal aliens from the country. As of January, DHS stated that roughly 3 million had left the country through a combination of physical deportations and voluntary exits.

Topping the list was Sergio Colin-Aviles of Mexico, who was convicted of homicide or manslaughter.

Dems want to keep them in the country, free-range.

Posted at 8:36 am by Stephen Green

MORE FALLOUT FROM 2020:

Posted at 8:35 am by Ed Driscoll

THIS RIGHT HERE IS THE BEST ARGUMENT FOR THE SAVE ACT:

Posted at 8:20 am by Stephen Green

I SUSPECT THE PAKISTANI ISI HAS TENDRILS THROUGHOUT THE UPPER ECHELONS OF BRITISH SOCIETY:

Posted at 8:19 am by Glenn Reynolds

THE LEFT HAS ROOTED FOR AMERICA’S ENEMIES FOR BASICALLY MY ENTIRE LIFETIME:

Posted at 8:15 am by Glenn Reynolds

THIS ISN’T DECOLONIZATION, IT’S STRAIGHT-UP COLONIZATION:

Posted at 8:12 am by Glenn Reynolds