Sometimes I feel like I’ve been tied to the tabbing post, oh Lord, I feel like I’m browsing …
Why do Democrats now universally condemn what achieves a top, longstanding Democratic priority? pic.twitter.com/8L3v7iOdXT
— U.S. Senator John Fetterman (@SenFettermanPA) March 7, 2026
Ed: Most of the answers to Sen. Fetterman argue that it’s Trump Derangement Syndrome. That may be a big part of the answer, but it’s not all of it. The truth is that Iran has NEVER been a “top, longstanding Democratic priority” in any sense other than rhetorical. Democrats wanted to sound tough but never wanted to take action. The progressive Democrat establishment has spent the last several decades arguing that any use of American force is illegitimate, for … reasons. The TDS is an intensifying factor, but that’s all. Fetterman is the now-rare exception.
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NY Times: Masoud Pezeshkian, the Iranian president, had just apologized on state television on Saturday morning for waves of Iranian missile strikes that hit Gulf states since last week, when air-raid sirens blared in Qatar and Bahrain — warning of further attacks.
Hours later, following criticism from Iranian hard-liners, Mr. Pezeshkian issued another statement in which he asserted that Iran had not attacked its “friendly and neighboring countries” in this war — this time omitting any apology.
This back-and-forth occurred even as attacks on Gulf countries continued, revealing divides inside Iran’s leadership as the country struggled to respond to the American-Israeli attacks, now entering their second week.
Ed: Looks like someone got a call from the IRGC. Pezeshkian is toast and so is the Assembly of Experts. I wrote about this earlier today.
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Looks like a desperation move to carve out a potentially survivable element from the ashes.
Memo to @POTUS: Don’t buy it. Pezeshkian is not a clean-hands option now. The whole thing must go.
No Islamic Regime riding back in on sliced-off coattails. https://t.co/T4OAHdS7fB— J.E. Dyer ☘️ (@OptimisticCon) March 7, 2026
Ed: Interesting analysis!
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A third U.S. Navy aircraft carrier strike group prepares to deploy for the Iran war. pic.twitter.com/S5Av7GuNmr
— Lucas Tomlinson (@LucasFoxNews) March 7, 2026
Ed: Looks as though the US is preparing to force open the Strait of Hormuz. The USS George H.W. Bush carrier group will deploy to the eastern Mediterranean while the USS Gerald Ford will shift from there to the Persian Gulf. That’s a big increase in both firepower and defense capabilities.
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AFP: A member of Iran’s Assembly of Experts says the body would meet within a day to choose the country’s next supreme leader, Iranian media reports.
“With divine assistance, this session will occur within the next twenty-four hours,” says Hossein Mozafari, one of the assembly’s 88 members, cited by the Fars news agency.
Ed: I smell BS. The Fars agency is controlled by the IRGC, which has been the only source that claims that the Assembly of Experts is still alive. The IRGC has essentially seized power and wants to wrap itself in the mantle of the theocrats in what used to be the Islamic Republic. Fars may “report” an election of a new Supreme Leader and the IRGC may act in his name, but I’d be surprised if anyone sees the nextatollah in public, like, ever.
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Iran International: The target of the strike on the Khamenei compound was his son, Mojtaba, who was marked to be his successor. pic.twitter.com/b5MW5zVLuu
— Open Source Intel (@Osint613) March 7, 2026
Ed: So much for home officing, eh?
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Hardest Hit: His life insurance company https://t.co/guaHyA4NaX
— Kurt Schlichter (@KurtSchlichter) March 7, 2026
Ed: Lloyds of London, hardest hit.
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Jerusalem Post: A fleet of over 80 Israel Air Force fighter jets completed another wave of strikes targeting infrastructure belonging to the Iranian regime in Tehran, which included the Islamic Republic’s IRGC Air Force situation room, which was key to the air defense systems in Iran and was located in the heart of Tehran, the IDF announced early Saturday.
The strikes also targeted 16 aircraft belonging to the elite Quds Force that were being used to transfer weapons to Hezbollah in Lebanon, the military said.
An earlier IDF statement said that several military sites were struck, including the main Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps (IRGC) military university, the Imam Hossein University, which was used for the training of IRGC officers and as an emergency asset, and, most recently, an IRGC assembly compound during Operation Rising Lion.
Ed: If we’re still hitting fresh targets like this on Day 8, we have plenty more military and political infrastructure left to attack.
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Ukraine is now sending help to the Persian Gulf, aiding Gulf states and the U.S. to protect their military bases from Iranian suicide drones with cheap Ukrainian interceptor drones:
US Patriot missile: $4 million
Iranian Shahad drone: $35,000
Ukraine’s interceptor drone: $3,000 pic.twitter.com/3HEvk2wSTG— Visegrád 24 (@visegrad24) March 7, 2026
Ed: Good to know who our friends really are. Let’s hope that lesson sinks in where it’s needed most. I suspect that we’ll license these from the Ukrainians and mass-produce them here, if possible. The Ukrainians need these pretty badly too, although perhaps that need has been less pressing since Israel destroyed some of Iran’s production capacity in the Twelve Day War. Iran may also have been less willing to export their drones to Russia in anticipation of another attack by the US and Israel.
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The Week (India): There has been growing speculation that the Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps (IRGC) Brigadier General Esmail Qaani was executed by Iran for spying for Israel.
Tehran has not confirmed the reports.
Arab Media however, has been reporting that Qaani was arrested and possibly executed on suspicion of espionage.
Emirati outlet The National reported that the claims were appearing on social media.
The reports have come after years of rumours surrounding the Quds Force general. Qaani earned the reputation of being “the man with nine lives” for repeatedly surviving and escaping about nine suspected assassination attempts that killed top leaders around him.
Most recently, Qaani was not among those who were killed in the strikes that led to the death of Iran’s supreme leader, Ayatollah Ali Khamenei, along with several senior regime figures. Unverified reports claim that he left the site minutes before the attack happened.
Ed: This is one of those “too good to check” stories. Qaani actually had been claimed as killed at one point in the Twelve Day War, only to turn up alive at the end. He wasn’t the only one whose survival surprised everyone; Pezeshkian had been briefly rumored dead, but turned out to have been wounded and survived. Is Pezeshkian an Israeli spy? That would be hilarious, but I highly doubt it. This has been a joke for quite a while, including after the June attacks, when Mike Doran called Qaani “Shmuel Cohen” and advised him to flee. I’d bet that Qaani got killed in the attacks on the palace or the bunker underneath it this week. It’s a pretty good example of how Arab media likes to amplify conspiracy theories about the Jooooooos, too.
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If my wife celebrated the massacre of Jews, rapes and desecration of women, and beheadings of babies… she would no longer be my wife. @NYCMayor https://t.co/vo0NqU7slZ
— John Ondrasik (@johnondrasik) March 7, 2026
Ed: Carla wouldn’t do that, of course, because she has a brain and a soul and a heart. She also has a book – and we all should read it! Check out my conversation with Carla in September.
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Mike Doran (today): Iranian Foreign Minister Aragchi makes a statement in response to President Trump’s latest Truth Social posting. I have to say, this statement is sophisticated and clever. They do know their brief, Iranian diplomats:
“President Pezeshkian’s openness to de-escalation within our region—provided that our neighbors’ airspace, territory, and waters are not used to attack the Iranian People—was almost immediately killed by President Trump’s misinterpretation of our capabilities, determination and intent.
“If Mr. Trump seeks escalation, it is precisely what our Powerful Armed Forces have long been prepared for, and what he will get. Responsibility for any intensification of Iran’s exercise of self-defense will lie squarely with the U.S. Administration. …
“The American People voted to end involvement in costly quagmires in the Middle East. Instead, they have ended up with an Administration that Netanyahu, after decades of failed attempts, finally managed to dupe into fighting Israel’s wars.
“This is a war of choice pursued by a small cabal of ‘Israel Firsters’, and ‘Israel First’ always means ‘America Last’.
Ed: This sounds like desperation. He’s trying to pander to the TDS afflicted and the anti-Semites in the US to press Trump to end the war. Trump has delivered his response already …
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Today in Tehran. pic.twitter.com/EgKLPWDL3V
— Open Source Intel (@Osint613) March 7, 2026
Ed: Trump wasn’t kidding around about the intensification.
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Emasculated cops in Manchester allow Muslims to chase people on horseback
Submissive Cop: “What do you want me to do, pull a man off a horse?”
Mancusian: “If they had a Union Jack on, you would!”
TRUTH!pic.twitter.com/wePFFFla3o— Jim Hanson (@JimHansonDC) March 7, 2026
Ed: London (and Manchester) have fallen.
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Adam Schiff falls right into Bill Maher’s trap as he criticizes a statement he thought was from Trump but was actually from Obama.
MAHER: “This statement from the administration: ‘The president had the constitutional authority to direct the use of military force because he could… pic.twitter.com/5jg3wpdAQZ
— The Vigilant Fox 🦊 (@VigilantFox) March 7, 2026
Ed: Notice how Schiff changes the subject from Libya to Syria. I wonder if he can find either on a map.
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