March 23, 2026

ISRAEL ALLIANCE IS A BARGAIN FOR U.S.: Rod Martin lays out the decisive strategic case for the U.S. maintaining a close, mutually supportive alliance with Israel. Contrary to the anti-semites Right and Left who claim America gets nothing from its relationship with Israel, the alliance is an absolute bargain. Martin frames the alternatives:

“When America retreats, Iran advances. When America hesitates, Russia probes. When America grows confused, China arrives with money, ports, telecom networks, surveillance systems, and diplomatic cover. That is the actual choice-set. The world does not freeze while Washington holds seminars and struggle sessions.

“Israel helps prevent that outcome in the Middle East by being the one country in the region both willing and able to confront the West’s enemies on a daily basis. And because Israel does so with its own soldiers rather than ours, the United States spends far less blood and treasure.

“This is the point the anti-Israel Right keeps missing. They speak as if support for Israel ‘drags’ America into war. In fact, a strong Israel is essential to keep America out of unnecessary wars. Indeed, in all of history, only in the last year have U.S. and Israeli forces felt the need to fight side by side in any offensive war.”

Much, much more here that needs to be said and heeded.

Posted at 9:57 am by Mark Tapscott

I MISS RUSH:

Posted at 9:51 am by Stephen Green

BECAUSE OF COURSE SHE DID: NYC first lady Rama Duwaji created artwork for DSA’s anti-Israel campaign.

First lady Rama Duwaji, who Mamdani has bizarrely claimed isn’t a public figure, created artwork for the New York City chapter of the Democratic Socialists of America as the lefty group unleashed a public campaign called “PalestineOnTheBallot.com.”

The effort promoted candidates running in Democratic Party primaries who snubbed funding from the American Israel Public Affairs Committee and vowed to support the Not on Our Dime Act — a bill that would punish or dissolve registered charities found to support “Israeli settler violence.”

The bill was sponsored by her husband, who was then a state Assemblyman.

Lovely couple.

Also: New Yorkers fume as Mamdani breaks Ramadan fast with Rikers inmates— but can’t be bothered to visit injured cops.

Just think of it as constituent service.

And some additional perspective:

Posted at 9:36 am by Stephen Green

WIKIPEDIA ISN’T DEAD, IT’S THE LIVING DEAD:

Posted at 9:20 am by Stephen Green

KRUISER’S MORNING BRIEFING: Chuck Schumer Is Taking a Rough Ride on the Struggle Bus. “Although Chuck Schumer is a classic Trump Derangement Syndrome-sufferer, getting him out of leadership or the Senate wouldn’t be much of a help for the Republicans. Next in line in the Senate is 81-year-old Dick Durbin from Illinois. And, because there is always someone worse waiting in the wings over there in Dem Land, many think that AOC will be the one to depose and replace Schumer.”

Posted at 9:05 am by Stephen Green

MAKING CLEAR WHICH SIDE IS WHICH IN IRAN:

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Posted at 8:50 am by Glenn Reynolds

STOP PUNISHING AMERICAN CONSUMERS FOR CHINA AND INDIA’S BAD ACTORS:

Posted at 8:49 am by Stephen Green

DECLINE IS A CHOICE: The new normal: Conditioning Colorado to power outages.

I’ve lived in Colorado since 1970. And you know what Colorado had back in 1970? High winds blowing down the Front Range.

I moved to Boulder in 1984 and have been there ever since. And you know what Boulder has had all that time? A freakin’ lot of high winds.

I remember as a college kid walking around the CU campus after windstorms, stepping around uprooted trees and massive broken branches that made the sidewalks impassable.

I’ve seen rooftop shingles go flying off Boulder buildings, signs ripped down, and semi-trucks overturned.

All of which is to say that for the last 55 years I have personally witnessed a crap-ton of high winds in our mountain state.

But only in the last few months have I witnessed our power utilities preemptively turning off electricity during high winds to “prevent fires.”
…
Colorado’s energy elite understands the math.

They know sizable power disruptions are in our future — because they ordered them. So, they’d better start getting YOU used to it.

Nah, I’ll be gone before then.

Posted at 8:34 am by Stephen Green

IS IT WRONG TO LAUGH?

I feel like this guy probably told fired coal miners and steelworkers to “learn to code,” so I’m gonna say not really.

Posted at 8:30 am by Glenn Reynolds

IT’S SELF-LICKING ICE CREAM CONES ALL THE WAY DOWN:

Posted at 8:18 am by Stephen Green

I’M SURPRISED THEY’RE EVEN THAT HIGH, TO BE HONEST: Don Surber: Bad war coverage, bad ratings: TV audiences down 42% from the Persian Gulf War. “Elon Musk, meanwhile, said X broke a record in engagements on the first day of Epic Fury, a record users broke the next day.”

Plus: “People want the news but the cable news channels don’t deliver news. They deliver panels. Usually the panel is a black guy, a white guy and three ladies.”

Posted at 8:15 am by Glenn Reynolds

TO BE HONEST, IT’S NOT A SHOCK AT THIS POINT:

Posted at 8:00 am by Glenn Reynolds

FOR A LIGHTBRINGER, HE WAS NEVER ALL THAT POPULAR ONCE PEOPLE BELATEDLY GOT TO KNOW HIM:

Posted at 7:47 am by Stephen Green

COVID SIX YEARS AGO TODAY: Boris Johnson orders UK lockdown to be enforced by police.

Boris Johnson will order police to enforce a strict coronavirus lockdown, with a ban on gatherings of more than two people and strict limits on exercise, as he told the British public: “You must stay at home.”

The prime minister ratcheted up Britain’s response with an address to the nation on Monday evening, warning that people would only be allowed outside to buy food or medication, exercise alone once a day, or to travel to work if absolutely necessary.

All non-essential shops will close with immediate effect, as will playgrounds and libraries, he said in the address from Downing Street.

After days of being accused of sending mixed messages about what the public should do, Johnson significantly escalated his language as he urged people to comply with the more stringent measures.

“You should not be meeting friends. If your friends ask you to meet, you should say no. You should not be meeting family members who do not live in your home. You should not be going shopping except for essentials like food and medicine – and you should do this as little as you can,” he said.

“If you don’t follow the rules, the police will have the powers to enforce them, including through fines and dispersing gatherings.”

“You should not be meeting friends. If your friends ask you to meet, you should say no.” Some found that order rather difficult to follow, not least of whom was “Professor Lockdown” himself: What Neil Ferguson’s booty call tells us about modern politics.

The conspiratorial left, convinced the world is run by secret cabals of bankers and cigar-chomping media moguls, thinks the Neil Ferguson story is a ‘dead cat’. In other words, they think the Daily Telegraph – Evil Tory Rag – revealed that Ferguson carried on bonking his mistress in defiance of a lockdown that he himself bears much responsibility for in order to distract attention from Britain overtaking Italy with the highest Covid death toll in Europe. A ‘dead cat’ strategy is when a sensationalist story is introduced to the mix to divert attention from a far more serious political crisis. Ferguson’s sexual antics are the Tory regime’s dead cat to Britain’s corona death toll, apparently.

This sums up the political infantilism of the left. It is actually incredibly important news that Ferguson, the Imperial College modeller who said it was possible 500,000 Brits would die if we didn’t lock down, defied the lockdown. It deserves the frontpage treatment it is getting today. For Ferguson’s booty call with his married lover actually reveals a great deal about the 21st-century elites and how they view their relationship with the masses. It’s one rule for them and another for us. They can carry on enjoying sneaky freedoms because their lives and jobs are important; we can’t because we are mere little people, whose silly work lives can casually be disrupted, whose love lives can be turned upside down, and whose families can be ripped apart. The Ferguson affair provides an illuminating insight into the new elitism.

As does the person with whom Ferguson hooked up with on said booty call:

On at least two occasions, Antonia Staats, 38, traveled across London from her home in the south of the capital to spend time with the government scientist, nicknamed Professor Lockdown,” reported the Telegraph.

Staats, we later learn, lives with her husband and two children in a £1.9 million home in south London. She’s a “left-wing campaigner” who is reportedly in an open marriage. According to the Telegraph, “She has told friends about her relationship with Prof Ferguson, but does not believe their actions to be hypocritical because she considers the households to be one.”

Ah yes, the old our-households-are-one-because-I’m-in-an-open-marriage argument. Never mind that a week before Ferguson and Staats’ first meeting, Britain’s Health Secretary had said even couples not living together must stay apart during the lockdown.

* * * * * * * * *

One rule for the poor people, another rule for us elites. And they wonder how they got Brexit.

But “Professor Lockdown” and his paramour weren’t the only high-ranking brits to violate Boris Johnson’s strict lockdown orders. There was also some chap called…Boris Johnson: U.K. “Partygate” probe reveals details of illegal, booze-fueled parties at PM Boris Johnson’s house during COVID lockdown.

Some of the 16 events under investigation were held at 10 Downing Street — Prime Minister Boris Johnson’s official home and office — and the Cabinet Office, and should not have been allowed to take place, investigator Sue Gray concluded in her 37-page report, adding that “other events should not have been allowed to develop as they did.”

In April, Johnson was for attending his birthday party, making him the first British prime minister ever found to have broken the law while in office.

“What took place at many of these gatherings and the way in which they developed was not in line with COVID guidance at the time,” Gray said.

The report included 10 redacted photographs, including four that show Johnson himself attending a birthday party in his honor in June 2020, and four others that show him raising a glass at another event. Both events were held at his Downing Street office.

Or to put it another way: Boris Johnson Missed His Churchill Moment. The pandemic was Boris’s biggest test. He failed.

The entire world had surrendered to the People’s Republic of China, adopting its totalitarian disease-control strategy, and unlike France or Poland in World War II, we surrendered without a shot being fired. If any man in the world was well-positioned to stand against this, it was the garrulous British renegade, Boris Johnson. Instead, the United Kingdom became a police state.

Well, not the entire world: How Sweden proved the world wrong about lockdowns: The evidence is clear: authoritarian restrictions did not save more lives.

As for Boris’ future, Theodore Dalrymple reviews his autobiography at City Journal and concludes:

How will history—that is to say, those who write history—judge Boris Johnson, and what of his own future? Will he be seen just as a mountebank and an opportunist, who rode a wave of discontent to assuage his own demanding, not to say imperious, ego? To return to the question: Behind the frivolous facade, were there just layers of frivolity ad infinitum, or was there a bedrock of serious intent?

I find it difficult to answer. Again, it is hard to be too damning of a man whom one has met and liked. That was, after all, why George Orwell did not want to meet the authors of the books he reviewed. At the same time, I understand those who splutter at the mention of his name.

As to Boris’s future, I think it would be a mistake to write him off. Public memory is short, and at the next election, in 2028, he will be only 64, by which time, if he continues his present trajectory, Keir Starmer will be the most reviled man in recent British history. Boris will be able to pose again as the only way through an impasse: I got Brexit done; now, I will remove Starmer!

Just pay no attention to what I did during 2020 and 2021…

Posted at 7:45 am by Ed Driscoll

HEH: Murphy deflects question on Schumer’s future as Senate leader.

When asked if he wanted to replace Schumer, Murphy said, “Well, I think we are united right now as a caucus. There’s always a lot of focus on Senator Schumer and Leader Jeffries,” during an appearance on NBC’s “Meet the Press.”

“Those are very hard jobs, especially at a historic moment like this,” he added.

Host Kristen Welker pressed him on his answer, pointing out that he did not say “yes” to supporting Schumer as the reigning party leader.

“Well, no, we are united as a caucus right now. Let me just be clear about that. We are united in ending this war. We are united in reining in the lawlessness of ICE. And we’re going to be united in winning the election this November,” Murphy told Welker.

“So right now we are together as a caucus,” he added.

Murphy later added that Schumer has a “tough job.”

Murphy wouldn’t have to keep saying how difficult the job is if Schumer were doing it well.

Posted at 7:32 am by Stephen Green

IS IT WEATHER, OR IS IT CLIMATE? DEPENDS ON THE NARRATIVE’S NEEDS.

Posted at 7:30 am by Glenn Reynolds

WHEN THE MEME IS INDISPUTABLE:

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Posted at 7:14 am by Glenn Reynolds

HAHA:

Posted at 7:08 am by Glenn Reynolds