The tabs in your eyes made some of the lies worth believin' ...
BREAKING: Chuck Norris finally lets death take him (for now)https://t.co/UCFuF7sDZV
— Not the Bee (@Not_the_Bee) March 20, 2026
Ed: Rest in peace. He was a good man, a great American, and left us so much richer in spirit for all of his work. Our prayers and condolences to his family, friends, and his many, many fans.
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.@Variety was a long standing entertainment trade publication but its’s imbecilic woke editors may overshadow its legacy. https://t.co/XMDENtKArx pic.twitter.com/G2cnvjZMKa
— John Ondrasik (@johnondrasik) March 20, 2026
Ed: We can expect a lot of this from the Protection Racket Media – the same outlets that will eulogize terrorists as “austere clerics” with “bushy beards” and shy smiles.
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Thomas Kolbe at American Thinker: From the very beginning of the crisis, the United States has made a decisive move by announcing its push into the maritime insurance business. Following a fourfold increase in premiums and the refusal of key insurers such as Lloyd’s to cover the risks of passage through Hormuz, the United States is now preparing a state-backed reinsurance mechanism to take over this geopolitically crucial sector. In doing so, it will determine who can transit -- and who cannot.
Europe thus finds itself in an increasingly precarious strategic predicament. Militarily, it is largely incapable of acting, and economically, due to its flawed energy policies, it is dependent in multiple ways on external actors -- not least on LNG supplies from the United States.
It fits the pattern that President Trump openly questioned on Wednesday whether the U.S. Navy should ensure the reopening of the Strait of Hormuz at all. Through the leverage of insurance and maritime security, concessions in trade, industrial, and regulatory matters can be extracted in the future. This applies not only to Europe, but also to China.
If the United States succeeds in bringing the Strait of Hormuz under its control, it will effectively set the price Europeans must pay for their energy supplies from this region. Only then will the true cost of Europe’s misguided energy policies become fully apparent.
Ed: Now that Qatari LNG will be off the market for a while, that miscalculation is about to become even more expensive. Read the whole essay.
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𝗩𝗗𝗛: 𝗧𝗛𝗘 𝗦𝗜𝗚𝗡𝗔𝗟𝗦 𝗔𝗥𝗘 𝗔𝗟𝗟 𝗣𝗢𝗜𝗡𝗧𝗜𝗡𝗚 𝗧𝗛𝗘 𝗦𝗔𝗠𝗘 𝗗𝗜𝗥𝗘𝗖𝗧𝗜𝗢𝗡.
— M.A. Rothman (@MichaelARothman) March 20, 2026
Victor Davis Hanson has spent fifty years studying how wars end. When he says the tide is turning, it's worth listening to why.
His argument isn't based on what the Pentagon is… pic.twitter.com/pC35L1Hdsu
His argument isn't based on what the Pentagon is saying. It's based on how everyone else is behaving. ...
VDH's conclusion: if Trump sees it through — and he believes he will — the regime falls. Not in years. 𝗣𝗿𝗲𝘁𝘁𝘆 𝘀𝗼𝗼𝗻. 𝗪𝗮𝘁𝗰𝗵 𝘄𝗵𝗮𝘁 𝗽𝗲𝗼𝗽𝗹𝗲 𝗱𝗼, 𝗻𝗼𝘁 𝘄𝗵𝗮𝘁 𝘁𝗵𝗲𝘆 𝘀𝗮𝘆. 𝗘𝘃𝗲𝗿𝘆𝗼𝗻𝗲 𝘄𝗶𝘁𝗵 𝘀𝗸𝗶𝗻 𝗶𝗻 𝘁𝗵𝗲 𝗴𝗮𝗺𝗲 𝗶𝘀 𝗯𝗲𝘁𝘁𝗶𝗻𝗴 𝗼𝗻 𝗔𝗺𝗲𝗿𝗶𝗰𝗮.
Ed: I certainly hope he's right. A couple of points for context, not skepticism or rebuttal, however. First, the Gulf states just realized that they can't bet on Iran any longer, which isn't exactly a predictive bet on America. Al-Jazeera just reflects the preferred narratives of the Qatari emirate. As for the Europeans, they need the US for Ukraine, a point which they have belatedly realized. I think VDH still largely gets this right, but this theocratic regime dug itself deeply into Iran, and it will take a while before it admits its own divine-mission failure.
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Trump on Iran: "I don't want to do a ceasefire. You know you don't do a ceasefire when you're literally obliterating the other side." pic.twitter.com/up5NaWgr2R
— Open Source Intel (@Osint613) March 20, 2026
Ed: Good. At least we've figured this much out about the 47-year war with Iran and its proxies, a lesson we kept forcing on Israel for the 20 years previous to the October 7 massacres. Meanwhile ...
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Donald Trump on Truth Social: Without the U.S.A., NATO IS A PAPER TIGER! They didn’t want to join the fight to stop a Nuclear Powered Iran. Now that fight is Militarily WON, with very little danger for them, they complain about the high oil prices they are forced to pay, but don’t want to help open the Strait of Hormuz, a simple military maneuver that is the single reason for the high oil prices. So easy for them to do, with so little risk. COWARDS, and we will REMEMBER! President DONALD J. TRUMP
Ed: It didn't take long to get a response to that message ....
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PM's Office, Gov.UK: Ministers met this afternoon to discuss the latest developments in the Middle East and Iran’s targeting of unarmed commercial shipping, civilian infrastructure including oil and gas facilities and its blocking of the Strait of Hormuz.
They underlined that the UK is working closely with international partners to develop a viable plan to safeguard international shipping in the Strait of Hormuz.
Ministers condemned Iran’s expansion of its targets to include international shipping. They agreed that Iran’s reckless strikes, including on Red Ensign vessels and those of our close allies and Gulf partners, risked pushing the region further into crisis and worsening the economic impact being felt in the UK and around the world.
They confirmed that the agreement for the US to use UK bases in the collective self-defence of the region includes US defensive operations to degrade the missile sites and capabilities being used to attack ships in the Strait of Hormuz.
Ed: Gee, Mother, may we? This is a few days late and lots of pounds short, but at least it shows that even the terminally weak establishment in Europe has started to get the message. We will still remember.
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CBS News: Pentagon officials have made detailed preparations for deploying U.S. ground forces into Iran, multiple sources briefed on the discussions told CBS News.
Senior military commanders have submitted specific requests aimed at preparing for such an option as President Trump weighs moves in the U.S.-Israel-led conflict with Iran, the sources said.
Mr. Trump has been deliberating whether to position ground forces in the region, sources said on condition of anonymity because they were not authorized to speak publicly. It was unclear under what circumstances he would authorize the use of troops on the ground.
"No, I'm not putting troops anywhere," he told reporters in the Oval Office on Thursday when asked about ground troops, but quickly added: "If I were, I certainly wouldn't tell you."
Ed: Preparing plans is what the Pentagon does. Developing plans for ground-troop deployments does not mean Trump will order those. However, there's a huge difference between seizing Kharg Island and marching on Tehran. Capturing Kharg and perhaps a couple of the islands closer to the Strait of Hormuz present far lower risks, nuch better supply lines, and valuable strategic and tactical advantages.
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Dear GOP:
— Jesse Kelly (@JesseKellyDC) March 20, 2026
Democrats have created 3 hour wait times at the airport because they don’t want illegal aliens deported.
There’s your messaging. Put it on repeat.
Ed: The RNC should have these ads up on the air already.
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Axios: Sen. John Fetterman (D-Pa.) is under heavy fire from fellow Democrats for casting the deciding vote to advance Sen. Markwayne Mullin's (R-Okla.) nomination for DHS secretary, with some openly calling for his ouster.
Why it matters: The idea of trying to unseat Fetterman is never far from many Democrats' minds, but rarely has it been discussed so explicitly and so openly.
"Once again Sen Fetterman shows why he is Trump's favorite Democrat. He needs to go," Rep. Brendan Boyle (D-Pa.), one of Fetterman's harshest critics, said in a post on X.
Ed: Boyle's preparing a primary challenge to Fetterman in 2028. That's what this is about. He's also trying to enforce a red line on restoring funding to Homeland Security, as the White House sends Tom Homan to negotiate a settlement with Senate Dems. Democrats want to shut down the airports to keep illegal aliens from being deported. Period.
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Heading to vote, and I will remain the only Democrat that refuses to shut our government down.
— U.S. Senator John Fetterman (@SenFettermanPA) March 20, 2026
Pay TSA agents.
Reopen DHS. pic.twitter.com/AVn7AwcUYk
Ed: True for now, but I suspect that Fetterman will get joined soon by seven or eight of his colleagues. When air travel shuts down entirely, their constituents will do the math above and vote accordingly.
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The Wrap: Journalists and media experts on Friday mourned the shuttering of CBS News Radio, the nearly century-old radio network that will end in May as part of CBS News’ 6% staff reduction.
The network, which serves 700 affiliate stations, will shut down on May 22, and all of its staff will be cut. CBS News Editor-in-Chief Bari Weiss and president Tom Cibrowski said the decision to end the radio network was “necessary” in a memo to staffers on Friday, writing that a shift in radio programming strategies and “challenging economic realities” have made it “impossible to continue the service.”
But journalists across the media industry lamented the decision to end the network, which launched in 1927 and was the last of the original three radio networks to remain in operation after the NBC Radio Network and the Mutual Broadcasting System ended in 1999. CBS sold its owned-and-operated stations in 2017, though the unit’s team still produced content for the affiliates. (Some national radio networks, such as ABC News Radio and Fox News Radio, remain in operation.)
Ed: "Journalists and media experts" pretty much describes CBS News Radio's audience, too. That's why Weiss and Cibrowski are pulling the plug. ABC and Fox can turn a profit at it, but CBS clearly can't. Salem Media – which owns this site – also knows how to succeed in radio. CBS has bigger fish to fry, and so does Paramount and David Ellison.
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Edward R. Murrow has been dead for SIXTY ONE YEARS https://t.co/RAtlVu7HhI
— John Podhoretz (@jpodhoretz) March 20, 2026
Ed: The Protection Racket Media's integrity has been dead almost as long.
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WSJ: LNG facilities in Qatar, the second-biggest supplier of LNG globally, are expected to be offline for months—and won’t resume production at prewar levels. National oil company QatarEnergy, which had already declared force majeure earlier this month, said strikes by Iran on Wednesday and Thursday caused extensive damage to its Ras Laffan hub.
A prolonged outage will have major ramifications for energy markets. The stoppage in Qatar means the world is losing nearly 12 billion cubic feet a day of natural-gas supplies, analysts say—about one-fifth of global LNG supplies. Once the war stops, it will have fewer cargoes from Qatar to heat homes and power industries.
The upshot: The U.S., already the biggest purveyor of cargoes in the world, is set up to log big wins and profits from being a reliable source of cargoes at a time when global inventories are being depleted and buyers are looking down the barrel of a potential monthslong disruption.
Ed: That will make Europe even more dependent on the US for energy, which provides more context to Kolbe's essay at American Thinker above. That may also force them back into dependence on Russia, too, if they are stupid enough to repeat those mistakes.
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BREAKING: Australian Prime Minister Albanese went to a Sydney mosque for Eid prayers to stand against Islamophobia, only to end up being threatened, with everyone screaming “Allahu Akbar” at him.
— Dr. Maalouf (@realMaalouf) March 20, 2026
He just sits there terrified, not knowing what to do.
pic.twitter.com/hcbJYp2wLx
Ed: Let's hope all of the multiculturalists learn a lesson this inexpensive. The entire "Islamophobia" narrative is an expression of appeasement.
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Military experts later confirmed that Chuck Norris and Walter Payton together on the same boat was temporarily the world’s fourth-strongest navy. pic.twitter.com/76I3bNdCcp
— Super 70s Sports (@Super70sSports) March 20, 2026
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