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.
.@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.
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.
𝗩𝗗𝗛: 𝗧𝗛𝗘 𝗦𝗜𝗚𝗡𝗔𝗟𝗦 𝗔𝗥𝗘 𝗔𝗟𝗟 𝗣𝗢𝗜𝗡𝗧𝗜𝗡𝗚 𝗧𝗛𝗘 𝗦𝗔𝗠𝗘 𝗗𝗜𝗥𝗘𝗖𝗧𝗜𝗢𝗡.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— M.A.
Rothman (@MichaelARothman) March 20, 2026 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.
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 ...
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 ....
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....
