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Thursday’s Final Word – HotAir

March 26, 2026
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Thursday's Final Word – HotAir
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We come from the land of the ice and snow, from the midnight sun where the hot tabs flow …





Ed: As a good friend wrote me when this came out … “Really? Advantage Iran? What are the guys at The Economist smoking?” Worth noting, too, that Michael Watson had to explain that he was being sarcastic. 

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WSJ: Israel has shifted the focus of its air campaign from destabilizing Iran’s ruling regime to crippling its military-industrial base, hoping to deliver a more lasting setback in the time remaining before it has to stop the fight.

The pivot comes as Israeli officials have become convinced President Trump could soon try to end the war, people familiar with the matter said. After more than 18,000 strikes by the U.S. and Israel over the past four weeks, Israel’s military already has worked through its priority targets and is now going back to hit some sites again to deepen the damage.

The shift is another sign Israel has given up on hopes of bringing down Iran’s regime from the air. Trump and Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu said from the war’s outset that the operation aimed to create the conditions for Iranians to overthrow their government. Israel had carried out a wide-ranging campaign against Iran’s internal security forces since the start of the war, even hitting individual checkpoints and police cars.

Ed: Let’s hope that the other Gulf states convince Trump to continue until the regime implodes. I will have an interview with an expert on nuclear proliferation who explains the necessity of seeing this to the end of the mullahs, and why the tipping point may be closer than we know. Stay tuned!

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Donald Trump on Truth Social: As per Iranian Government request, please let this statement serve to represent that I am pausing the period of Energy Plant destruction by 10 Days to Monday, April 6, 2026, at 8 P.M., Eastern Time. Talks are ongoing and, despite erroneous statements to the contrary by the Fake News Media, and others, they are going very well. Thank you for your attention to this matter! President DONALD J. TRUMP





Ed: Again, I don’t think this is a confidence-builder for the Israelis, but it’s also not a pause in operations other than the reprisals over Hormuz traffic. All other operations will continue for now. This may indicate that the faction in these negotiations needs more time to prevail. 

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Ed: Good question. The silence that follows it is its own answer. 

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Axios: Rep. Nancy Mace (R-S.C.) told Axios she will “most likely” vote for House Democrats’ resolution to constrain President Trump from waging war with Iran the next time it comes up for a vote.

Why it matters: The vote is symbolic — even if the measure passed both chambers, Trump could veto it — but Mace’s support puts the House one step closer to a major rebuke of the administration’s Middle East operations.

Mace emerged as a suddenly fierce critic of the Iran war this week, declaring Wednesday that she will vote against funding further operations in the region.

But she went a step further on Thursday, telling Axios in a text message: “War with Iran needs to end. President Trump has won the war, time to exit.”

Ed: I trust that decision to Trump and Hegseth far more than I do to the perpetual Me Machine of Nancy Mace. It matters not anyway; it won’t pass the Senate. But even if it did, Trump would just veto the bill. Why not let Trump have his 60 days under the War Powers Act and see if he’s still fighting the war at that point? Both chambers of Congress have already embarrassed themselves into a clear if tacit endorsement of the war by forcing War Powers Act votes. 





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Ed: This is a military in free-fall. No one uses 12-year-olds for armed service unless they are running out of options. It reminds me of a scene from “Taps” in which Ronnie Cox’s Colonel Kerby scolds Timothy Hutton’s Brian Moreland for using pre-teens as soldiers to hold the quad, referring to “boys without hair one between their legs” as the disgrace that it is. That’s the IRGC now. It’s a move borne of sheer desperation. 

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Ace of Spades HQ: Before the Food-Borne Illness Attack: Iran’s Naval chief, in charge of shutting down the Strait of America and harassing ships and killing people for the past decade has himself been “opened” by Israeli missiles.

The media will be quick to celebrate this, as it only proves that Drumpf! and his Puppet-Master Netanyahu are “getting desperate” and are isolated because they “have no Iranians left to lie to.”

In further proof that the Islamic Occupiers of Iran are moving from strength to strength: They’re now recruiting child soldiers to man the Basij checkpoints because the adult Basij thugs have either been killed or are refusing to stand at the checkpoints.

So Iran will staff them with 12-year-old Li’l Basij guards, and if we kill them, Iran will claim “The Americans and Jews are murdering innocent children for just manning army checkpoints we are too cowardly to man ourselves.”

Ed: I wouldn’t put it past the Protection Racket Media to try this. Is that a deliberate Iranian strategy? Could be, but it’s worth noting that even Hamas and Hezbollah have not descended that far down the disgrace scale, and they have no compunctions about hiding among civilians rather than facing their enemies on their own.  





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Ed: To adapt a very old saying in diplomacy: If you do not help to set the table, you do not get to eat the meal, let alone decide on the menu. The EU has refused to play any role in this conflict; the EU has nothing to say about when or how it ends, unless we decide that they have any value to us. 

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NY Post: The 83-year-old US Air Force veteran who was randomly shoved onto the subway tracks by an illegal migrant on the Upper East Side has died from his injuries — and his alleged killer has been charged with murder.

Grandfather Richard Williams succumbed to his injuries March 17 after he was allegedly pushed onto the tracks with another man while waiting for a train at the Lexington Avenue-63rd Station just before noon March 8, authorities and sources said.

His alleged attacker, Honduran national Bairon Hernandez, 34, was arrested March 10 at a homeless shelter — and his charges have been upgraded to second-degree murder following Williams’ death, court records show. …

Hernandez is a “serial criminal” with a lengthy rap sheet of at least 15 charges, including aggravated assault, possession of a weapon, and domestic violence, according to the US Department of Homeland Security.

Ed: Outrageous. I’d ask why Hernandez was still in the US, but we all know why. New York officials would rather sacrifice people like Williams than to contradict their “sanctuary” values. 

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Ed: Values! Speaking of which, it doesn’t appear that Democrats have figured out they matter …

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Jim Geraghty at NRO: Ruy Teixeira, a senior fellow at the American Enterprise Institute and co-author of the 2002 book The Emerging Democratic Majority, announces that his Substack newsletter, The Liberal Patriot, is coming to an end. The end, he reports, is because Democrats have minimal or no interest in his message that they need to move back to the center. …

Teixeira walks through quite plausible explanation of recent events and what is likely to occur in this year’s midterm elections. Trump has made a variety of unpopular decisions; Democrats did well in 2025, are doing well in special elections, and will probably have a good Election Day in November. This is all driven by Democrats’ fury at Trump’s decisions in office and independents’ frustration with a president who hasn’t delivered a more affordable cost of living, a problem exacerbated by tariffs and a generally erratic and unpredictable set of economic policies. If this comes to pass, Democrats will conclude that 2024 was just an odd bout of temporary insanity on the part of the electorate, or a reflection of the particular weaknesses of Joe Biden and Kamala Harris. They’ll believe that they’re on a trajectory to win back the White House in 2028.

And then, at some point in 2027 or 2028, the electorate will start to remember why they were willing to give Trump another chance in the last presidential election. Add up the smug cultural elitism, the distinctly minority position on trans issues, the persistent reluctance to deport those who enter the country illegally, the absolute addiction to raising taxes, and the high-profile failures of the blue-state model and blue cities from California to Chicago to New York, and you see that the Democratic positions of today aren’t all that different in their policy views from 2024, when they proved capable of losing to Donald Trump again.





Ed: That’s too bad about Teixeira’s Substack. I read it semi-regularly as a way to calculate where the center-liberal voters are on current events and policy. Unfortunately, that’s a vanishing demographic. 

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Ed: Yup, yup, it does help. It explains why credentialism and higher ed are vastly overrated in today’s market. I’d much rather have a man who turned a plumbing practice into a successful company in the Senate or at DHS than the overeducated idiot with a degree in economics who nonetheless thinks socialism works. And I hope that helps. 

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NBC News: A Trump administration official made two criminal referrals Wednesday against New York Attorney General Letitia James months after the Justice Department failed for a third time in its efforts to prosecute the longtime target of President Donald Trump.

Federal Housing Finance Agency Director Bill Pulte alleged in the referrals that James committed insurance fraud, saying she may have falsified information on separate homeowner’s insurance applications regarding occupancy at two homes in Norfolk, Virginia, according to documents obtained by NBC News.

One referral was made to U.S. Attorney Jason Quiñones in the Southern District of Florida and the other to U.S. Attorney Andrew Boutros in the Northern District of Illinois, as the insurance companies for the two respective applications, each for a different Norfolk property, are based in those jurisdictions.

Ed: Worth noting, but the DoJ has botched these referrals in the past, and it’s not really clear whether they’re doing any damage at all now. Trump may be making as much of a martyr out of James as she did out of Trump. Putting more effort into curtailing lawfare would likely be a more productive use of time and energy. 





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Ed: Worth watching as an indication of a pivot back to MAGA economic issues.

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