Sweet tabs are made of these, you and I when we disagree, everybody’s browsing for someone …
“It’s been two whole weeks and Japan STILL hasn’t surrendered!”
—CNN, Dec. 21, 1941— Jon Gabriel (@exjon) March 13, 2026
Ed: The bedwetting media are truly impressive with their utter lack of context. The US and Israel are dismantling 47 years of defenses and deterrent systems halfway around the world. There’s a reason why the administration has offered timelines between four and eight weeks to complete the mission of eliminating threats to the region, including terror operations.
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Associated Press: A large explosion rocked a central square in Iran’s capital where thousands were gathered Friday for an annual state-organized rally to support the Palestinians and call for Israel’s demise. Israel had warned that it would target the area in central Tehran.
There were no reports of casualties. But the decision to proceed with the mass demonstration that was attended by some senior government officials, and Israel’s threat to target the area, underscored the fierce determination on both sides nearly two weeks into a war that has rattled the global economy and shows no sign of letting up.
Ed: The Israelis at least gave the Iranians a warning. Iranian missiles and drones routinely target residential buildings and other civilian targets.
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US🇺🇸 and Israeli🇮🇱 forces just hit near Tehran’s Quds Day rally, the regime’s biggest propaganda circus of the year. The same event they spent weeks forcing people to attend as human shields.
One explosion. That’s all it took. The whole show fell apart. Crowds scattered. Panic… pic.twitter.com/2eAGyWoJ6y
— Nariman Gharib (@NarimanGharib) March 13, 2026
Ed: I’ve seen a few videos of this moment, and it appears that the crowd remained remarkably calm overall. This may reflect a level of confidence in American and Israeli targeting, which the regime not only will never admit but also never share – and everyone knows it. The safest place for the people in this march was on the streets.
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WSJ: President Trump said it is unlikely that Iranians will rise up soon against the regime. “I really think that’s a big hurdle to climb for people that don’t have weapons,” Trump said in a Fox News Radio interview that aired Friday. “I think it’s a very big hurdle, so that’ll happen—maybe not immediately.”
Trump also played down disruptions in the Strait of Hormuz, calling it Iran’s “last ditch effort.” Asked about escorts through the passageway, Trump said: “We would do it if we needed to. But hopefully things are going to go very well. We will see what happens.”
Ed: This the fly in the regime-change ointment. The US and Israel have begun targeting Basij checkpoints and IRGC forces that are tasked with suppressing the populace to allow Iranians to clear that hurdle, but that will take a lot of time and sorties. The hope will be that the strikes and their precise accuracy will crush morale to the point where both forces simply desert and allow the people to seize power, but that won’t happen overnight either. It does explain this, though …
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It’s an authoritarian country, citizens don’t have guns, and it’s a major rally with tons of law enforcement around.
And they also have to do this at this moment in time. https://t.co/fAy12AV7Bu
— Yashar Ali 🐘 (@yashar) March 13, 2026
Ed: Exactly. The Basij forces are primarily plain-clothes, and likely so are many of the IRGC forces that deal with population control. They may not be obvious in these videos and images, but they’re on scene and watching for any sign of revolt. As Yashar says, too, the regime leadership had to show up for this march; it’s why the absence of Nepo Babytollah is so remarkable.
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Jewish News Syndicate: Israeli Finance Minister Bezalel Smotrich said on Thursday that a November 2024 ceasefire with Hezbollah was signed due to pressure from the Biden administration, including threats of a weapons embargo and a hostile United Nations Security Council resolution.
“Hezbollah took a heavy blow in ‘Operation Northern Arrows’ but was not defeated,” Smotrich wrote in a Hebrew statement on social media outlining his assessment of the current war.
“We knew this when we signed the ceasefire, which was the correct thing at the time, both because of threats from the Biden administration of a U.N. Security Council resolution against us and an arms embargo, and because of operational and resource constraints,” he added.
Ed; No one should be terribly surprised by this. Biden had been pandering to Dearbornistan during the entirety of the October 7 war. As the election neared, Biden stepped up pressure on Israel as a way to generate left-wing enthusiasm for Kamala Harris. Biden would sell out his own mother for his own political and financial benefit.
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The Iranian Mullah Regime cannot meet the payroll of the Regime Security Forces…
…so, it is stealing the next payroll from everyone else.
Food security issues started the last Iranian mass insurrection. The Mullah Regime just lit the short fuze for the next one. https://t.co/xIIQaxfTWe
— Trent Telenko (@TrentTelenko) March 10, 2026
Ed: The strike on the Sepah Bank may wind up being the most strategic in the war. It won’t stop the drones or missiles immediately, but it may accelerate the morale collapse.
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Daily Mail: Mojtaba Khamenei, 56, succeeded his father, Ayatollah Ali Khamenei, following his assassination on February 28.
He is reportedly in a coma at the Sina University Hospital in Tehran following an airstrike, according to a source in Tehran.
Due to his condition, he does not know of the ongoing war, the death of his family members, including his wife and son and of his own election as Supreme leader, the source said.
Mojtaba is also reportedly in intensive care and surrounded by security officials, while a large section of the hospital has been sealed off to guard Iran’s Supreme Leader.
Ed: I’d take this with a small grain of salt, but it fits. This gives the IRGC full rein to claim Nepo Babytollah’s religious authority while operating a grubby military junta. The IRGC spent years grooming Mojtaba to succeed his father, and now they don’t even have to worry about Nepo Babytollah growing a spine.
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Very interesting.
Tehran thought that the attacks would trigger a split in Gulf allies, produced the opposite effect. UAE, Bahrain and others are doubling down on their relationship with US and Israel. https://t.co/tbrgG4XpOX
— Zineb Riboua (@zriboua) March 13, 2026
Ed: Iran thought their deterrents would scare their neighbors. They succeeded … too well, as it turns out. After watching what an untethered Iran could do to the region and to the oil trade, these neighbors want the US to impose Pax Americana toute suite. Or perhaps better put, Pax Trumpicana. This was the predictable result, but the Iranians got too high on their own propaganda supply.
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Kira Davis: Believe all women.
Black lives matter.
I am the 99%.
Trans women are women.
Be kind.
Hate has no home here.
These are all obfuscations. They cover the underlying motivation and the overall goal – Marxism. Each statement actually means its opposite – only believe the women you choose to accept as women, be kind to the likeminded only, hate has no home except for the people who vote differently – they deserve hatred and ostracizing. They all come with evil caveats.
And the worst culprits are the women – the liberal women, mostly white but they’re all the same, who have somehow turned ‘girl-power’ into patriarchal servitude.
Ed: Let’s change the pace a bit here, with a great essay – as usual – from my friend Kira.
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If you told me a year ago @megynkelly would be reposting propaganda to justify terrorist attacks on Jewish synagogues in America I would have said you were insane. Yet here we are. pic.twitter.com/G9tVLmpJYX
— John Ondrasik (@johnondrasik) March 13, 2026
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Variety: Colbert’s removal from the air, when it was announced last July, was legitimately seismic news, for the industry and for an audience who saw him as a crucial voice for the anti-Trump Resistance since the 2016 election. The timing of the news, though, meant that Colbert had an entire final season to play out with all parties, from writers and producers to host to guests, knowing that the end was in sight. (This differentiates it from the brief period when “Tonight Show” host Conan O’Brien’s job was in limbo during the O’Brien-Jay Leno succession crisis — then, the precariousness and uncertainty of the situation gave the show incredible tension and voltage.)
What has ended up making it to air has been an increasingly puffy tribute to the show’s own host. The endless bouquets being tossed Colbert’s way have started to make the studio smell a bit cloying. … The cause of standing up for a comedian who may have been tossed aside for angering the regime is getting tied up in honoring Colbert the celebrity, and it’s starting to feel wearying.
Ed: As Ed Driscoll at Instapundit notes, “when you’re a Leftist who’s lost Variety …” Colbert is best understood as Regime Comedy, in service to the progressive-elite regime that runs Academia, the entertainment industry, and the power brokers of DC and NYC.
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US defense official confirms to Fox News that the Pentagon is sending the USS Tripoli, a Marine Amphibious Ready Group, and the 31st Marine Expeditionary Unit (MEU) to Mideast. The Tripoli is stationed out of Japan and would take about 2 weeks to get to the Mideast. Accompanying… https://t.co/NqqbcLT7DQ
— Jennifer Griffin (@JenGriffinFNC) March 13, 2026
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