Welcome to a gray Sunday, with snow in the offing tomorrow for Chicago. Oy!.
It’s Sunday, March 15, 2026, the dreaded Ides of March, the day on which Julius Caesar was assassinated in 44 BC. Here’s a painting of the aftermath, with the Wikipedia caption, “Aftermath of the attack with Caesar’s body abandoned in the foreground, La Mort de César by Jean-Léon Gérôme, c. 1859–1867”. Click to enlarge, and be careful out there!
It’s also National Egg Cream Day, a classic drink of New York Jews that contains neither eggs nor cream, National Peanut Lovers Day, and National Pears Hélène Day (poached pears with vanilla ice cream and chocolate or caramel sauce). Here’s a bunch of those pears; the dessert sounds good but I’ve never had it:
Oh, and yesterday (3/14) was Pi Day, and there was a Google Doodle. It takes you to an AI question! Click to see where it goes (hint: it has something to do with Archimedes)
Readers are welcome to mark notable events, births, or deaths on this day by consulting the March 15 Wikipedia page.
Da Nooz:
*Well, the U.S. finally attacked Iran’s Kharg Island in the Persian Gulf, the off-loading point for 90% of Iran’s oil. But only military targets were struck; apparently the pipelines and such weren’t touched.
President Trump said on social media that the U.S. military had conducted a large bombing raid on Friday on Kharg Island, a key port and Iran’s oil export hub. Mr. Trump said the raid had “totally obliterated” military forces on the island, but that he had directed the Pentagon not to damage its oil infrastructure, “for reasons of decency.”
The global price of oil has surged by 40 percent since the United States and Israel began the war with Iran last month.
The strikes on Kharg Island targeted all of the military infrastructure on the island, a military official said. U.S. Air Force bombers struck missile storage sites, as well as sites that housed Iranian mines, the official said. He said the United States did not target the economic infrastructure on the island.
A senior official from Iran’s Oil Ministry said the attacks on the island were enormous and destructive, and that employees of the oil refineries reported nearly two hours of nonstop explosions and airstrikes that shook the island like an earthquake.
The senior official, who asked not to be named because he was discussing sensitive issues, said that an attack on Kharg Island’s oil and gas infrastructure would immediately halt a major part of Iran’s oil exports, with severe economic and infrastructure consequences.
Kharg Island is one of Iran’s most strategic and critical energy outposts, situated deep into the Persian Gulf’s north, about 20 miles off the mainland’s coast. About 90 percent of Iran’s oil exports go through Kharg. The island has huge oil storage facilities, and pipelines from the island are connected by sea to some of Iran’s largest oil and gas fields.
Decency my tuchas! Trump doesn’t know the meaning of the word. If he destroyed the oil infrastructure on the island, gas prices would shoot up beyond reason, perhaps to $200 a barrel. Remember that Bret Stephens recommended that the U.S. seize the island:
What, then, should the Trump administration do? My prescription: Seize Kharg Island. Mine or blockade Iran’s remaining ports. Destroy as much Iranian military capability as possible over the next week or two, including a second Midnight Hammer operation to destroy what’s left of Iran’s nuclear capacity and know-how. And threaten the regime with further bombing if it massacres its own citizens, mounts terrorist attacks abroad or returns to nuclear work.
I don’t know if this will bring an end to the war acceptable to Trump (or America, which is much less keen on the war), but seizing Kharg Island means no more oil from Iran, and would have the same effect, though the flow could begin again soon. (But under what conditions?)
*We have a credible motive for the man who drive a firework-laden vehicle into a Detroit synagogue, and then died (via suicide) after a firefight with private guards. The man was born in Labeanon and lost family members in that country during an airstrike last week. Bolding is mine.
The man who rammed his truck into a Michigan synagogue on Thursday killed himself during a firefight with security guards, after his vehicle became lodged in a hallway during the attack, law enforcement officials said on Friday.
The vehicle was loaded with fireworks, and the engine apparently caught fire during the gunfight, Jennifer Runyan, the special agent in charge of the F.B.I. office in Detroit, said at a news conference on Friday evening.
The attacker, identified by federal officials as Ayman Mohamad Ghazali, a 41-year-old naturalized U.S. citizen born in Lebanon, lived in Dearborn Heights, Mich., which is home to a large Muslim community about 20 minutes from the synagogue in West Bloomfield Township. Both towns are suburbs of Detroit.
Mr. Ghazali lost four relatives in an airstrike in Lebanon last week, according to a Lebanese official, who said he knew the family. A Dearborn Heights mosque held a memorial for Mr. Ghazali’s slain family members on Sunday, according to its imam, Hassan Qazwini of the Islamic Institute of America.
The attacker had “no criminal history and no registered weapons,” and had never been the subject of an F.B.I. investigation, Ms. Runyan said, refusing to speculate about his possible motives. He sat in his vehicle that was parked outside of the synagogue, Temple Israel, for about two hours before driving into the building.
He was still in the vehicle when he exchanged gunfire with at least two security officers inside, she said. “At some point during the gunfight, Ghazali suffers a self-inflicted gunshot wound to the head,” she added. No one else was killed, and some 140 students and their teachers were evacuated from the building without injury.
Ms. Runyan is a blockhead. The motivation is almost certainly hatred of Jews and Israel prompted by the death of the attacker’s family. And note how the NYT gives almost equal sympathy for Jews and Muslims in its article:
The episode heightened fears among Jews in Michigan and across the United States. A wave of rising antisemitism in America has been exacerbated by the U.S.-Israeli war on Iran, which has extended into attacks by Israel on Lebanon in an attempt to root out the Iran-backed militant group Hezbollah.
It also prompted anxiety for members of the area’s large Arab community, who braced for extra scrutiny after they learned that the attacker was from Lebanon. “This tragedy comes at a time when communities everywhere are confronting rising hate and senseless violence,” said Mayor Mo Baydoun of Dearborn Heights, where the attacker worked at a popular Mediterranean restaurant.
Listen, NYT, extra scrutiny is not the same thing as shooting people. And so far there have been far, far more attacks on Jews than on Muslims, so yes, the FBI should be looking harder at the Muslim community than at Jews if they’re trying stave off terrorist attacks.
*This trial was the first of its kind: in Texas there were convictions for most of the nine Americans accused of terrorism for shooting a police officer at an ICE facility last July 4. (Article is archived here.)
“These verdicts make clear that those who choose violence over lawful expression will face the full force of the American justice system,”said ICE Director Todd M. Lyons.“Those who target federal officers with intimidation, ambush tactics or political violence will be investigated, prosecuted and held accountable.”
Attorneys for the defendants cast the verdicts as defeats for free speech.
“I feel like the U.S. lost here with this verdict and what it means for future defendants,” said Christopher Weinbel, an assistant federal public defender. He added that he was especially dismayed by the verdict as a U.S. Army veteran who deployed six times. “I feel like it turned its back on justice with this.”
. . .The charges stemmed from what the defendants’ attorneys called a “noise demonstration” July 4 outside Prairieland Immigration and Customs Enforcement Detention Center in nearby Alvarado, Texas, that left a police officer shot and wounded.
The nine defendants, indicted by a grand jury collectively last fall, include alleged ringleader Benjamin Song, a former Marine reservist; Savanna Batten; Zachary Evetts; Autumn Hill; Meagan Morris; Maricela Rueda; and a couple, Elizabeth and Ines Soto. The accused included a middle school teacher, a college student, a mechanical engineer and a UPS worker.
They faced a combination of charges, including attempted murder, rioting, providing support to terrorists, conspiracy to use and carry explosives and conspiracy to corruptly conceal documents. One of the nine, Daniel Sanchez-Estrada, was not at the scene and was accused of later trying to hide a box of “anti-government propaganda.”
Eight of the defendants (except Sanchez-Estrada) were convicted of providing support for terrorists, riot and explosives charges (fireworks). Only Song was convicted of attempted murder for shooting the officer. Sanchez-Estrada was convicted of concealing documents and conspiracy to conceal documents (his wife, Rueda, was also convicted of the conspiracy charge). Hill, Evetts, Morris and Rueda were acquitted of attempted murder and discharging a firearm charges.
. . . All pleaded not guilty and did not testify at the two-week trial. Most faced potential life sentences. Sentencing has been scheduled for June 18. Prosecutors said Song now faces 20 years to life in prison; Batten, Evetts, Hill, Morris, Rueda, Elizabeth and Ines Soto each face 10 to 60 years; Sanchez Estrada faces up to 40 years in prison.
This was an antifa-like attack, if not by an antifa organization itself. In fact, one of the items the jury asked to see during its two-day deliberation was Antifa: The Anti-Fascist Handbook. And no, it isn’t freedom of speech if there was a conspiracy that led to immediate violence during the protest.
*Quillette has an interview with Dr. Schmeul Bar, a former Israeli intelligence officer who prognosticates about Iran’s future (article archived here). A bit of the long exchange:
Q: People are trying to figure out the potential scenarios at hand. Trump is determined to avoid a long war of attrition, while Netanyahu might insist on continuing until all stated goals are met. Is the primary aim of both parties to destroy Iran’s nuclear capabilities?
SB: First, Iran could develop a destructive capability against Israel even without nuclear weapons. Israel will not accept this. So Israel had to take advantage of Iran’s weakness to eliminate Iran’s conventional capabilities. Second, the Iranian economy is in hyperinflation, people in big cities like Tehran, Isfahan, and Mashhad have about two or three hours of water a day. When you buy bread, the shop can’t buy a new loaf because the price of tomorrow’s bread has already gone up by twenty percent. There simply isn’t the money so the stores are empty.
So what are Iranians going to do if they don’t go out on to the streets to protest the state of the economy? They are saying, “Look at what you’ve done to us, you are throwing your money into Hamas and nuclear missiles instead of feeding us.” You have a deteriorating economy caught in a downward spiral, and a situation where Israel has a vested interest in getting rid of your missiles. And the June 2025 war showed that Israel knows a thing or two about what’s going on in Iran, and how to take out its senior figures.
As for Trump, it is probably best to avoid newspaper-like analysis that asks what he is doing today or tomorrow. Trump is saying, “Iran is weak and the Iranian people want to get rid of the regime, so all I have to do is push.” Let’s not forget that the regime has been chanting “Death to America!” for 47 years, and that it has murdered Americans. So from Trump’s point of view, he is taking revenge for all that and getting rid of a regime that the Democrats before him failed to remove. The way he sees it is: “In the end, I will have destroyed the most anti-American regime and made the Arab countries beholden to me as a result.” That is a win-win for Trump.
. . . Q: What does the future hold for Iran?
SB: The regime will start to crumble as the people within the IRGC and the army start to ask themselves, “What exactly are we doing here?” These are historic times. We’re talking about the emergence of a new world order. We don’t always realise when we are in the middle of that sort of change, but such a change is happening right now. The new world order is spearheaded by a combination of things, including the terrible condition of the Iranian economy and the huge mistake of launching the 7 October massacre. In Saudi Arabia, meanwhile, Muhammad Bin Salman is looking to forge a more Western-oriented and less religious country.
Well, this is just one man’s opinion, but a man who was in IDF intelligence for many years and has a Ph.D. in Middle Eastern History as well as a ton of other credentials. Right now, in the middle of a war whose outcome is undertain, it’s worth listening to him, if for no other reason than to get an informed viewpoint.
*Over at The Weekly Dish, Andrew Sullivan shows us the darker (to me) side of James Talarico a devout Presbyterian who just became the Democratic nominee for the 2026 U.S. Senate election in Texas. Sullivan’s piece is called “The Christianism of the Left,” and is subtitled: “Meet James Talarico, the next generation’s religious crusader for woke liberalism.”
. . .Which brings me to James Talarico, the Christianist running for Senate in Texas. After defeating the race-baiting Jasmine Crockett, the MSM is framing him as a “moderate”. To be sure, I’d vote for Talarico in an instant if I were a Texan (restraining the mad king is vital this fall). He’s also a clear speaker, a man of real faith (Democrats need more like him), and a man rightly revolted by the indecency of Trump. He engages Trump voters, including Joe Rogan, and was one of very few Dems to call out Biden’s disastrous record on immigration. All awesome.
But he is also a defiantly woke Christianist: a man fusing the agenda of the far left with Christian theology. He was brought up in Saint Andrew’s Presbyterian Church, a woke congregation in deep-blue Austin, where the Gospel about Peter’s denial of Jesus last week was followed thus:
The preacher … spoke of her own experience living in denial, both in 12-step programs and — due to her internalized homophobia — as a lesbian in a cisgendered, patriarchal world. She then made a sudden switch to talking about Germany in the Thirties, and the parallels with modern America. She performed all the classics: Hitler, Trump, the patriarchy, Pastor Niemöller, the threat of Christian nationalism and, at the end, threw in a bit of “No Kings” for good measure.
This is not atypical in many liberal churches, where prayers for an end to “white supremacy” are routine. So it is no surprise to find that Talarico went to seminary “because I had a pretty big crisis of faith in our political system.” (My italics.) Nor is it surprising that when asked to offer an invocation as a pastor in the Texas legislature, he began:
“Holy mystery, you have so many names.” He cycled through the monikers for God in Judaism, Islam, Hinduism, and Buddhism before arriving at the New Testament’s declaration that God is love.
And in Talarico’s church of woke, Jesus’s teachings are identical to that of a left-wing Democrat of precisely March 2026:
Christ is the immigrant deported without due process. Christ is the senior deprived of their Social Security benefits. Christ is the protestor kidnapped in an unmarked vehicle by plain clothes officers.
It goes on, and I don’t like this Left-wing Christianism at all, for, like Right-wing Christianism uses religion to boost a political agenda. Yes, I’d vote for Talerico over his racist opponent, but he’s now being touted as a Presidential candidate, and I can’t stomach his arrant fusion of politics and Christianity. Please, dear Ceiling Cat, let Pete Buttigieg be the Democratic nominee in 2028!
Meanwhile in Dobrzyn, Hili dumps on progressives:
Hili: I see a dangerous escalation of progress.
Andrzej: In whom exactly?
Hili: In the progressives.
In Polish:
Hili: Zauważam niebezpieczną eskalację postępu.
Ja: U kogo?
Hili: U postępowców.
*******************
From Things with Faces (look at the rock at 6 o’clock):
From Give me a Sign:
From Cats Doing Cat Stuff:
From Masih, who tells us that three of the six Iranian women soccer players/staff have withdrawn their request for asylum in Australia and will be heading home. It doesn’t take a rocket scientist to understand why (this morning I see that there are now four):
Iranian Women’s Soccer Players Withdraw Asylum Request !
Would anyone flee a dictatorship… then suddenly go back? I know their hostage diplomacy playbook very well.
The Iranian media now announced that Mona Hamoudi, Zahra Sarbali, and Zahra Meshkinkar, two players and a staff… pic.twitter.com/JilU4ua8JM
— Masih Alinejad 🏳️ (@AlinejadMasih) March 14, 2026
From Emma Hilton; Malcolm Gladwell says that if men aren’t allowed to compete in women’s sports, then, in some bizarre act of repayment women should have to give up some other space they occupy to make things “right”. He’s also a blockhead.
Couple thoughts: sport as a “stage” for the TW issue is “effective” in the sense that M advantage is SO clear & obvious that a case for a clear boundary that excludes males is VERY strong. But…exactly the same principles support women’s rights to other spaces even more strongly https://t.co/bBNdEfeegR
— Ross Tucker (@Scienceofsport) March 12, 2026
From Luana; a good point:
I lost a cousin on 10/7.
I didn’t go attack a mosque.
Stop excusing antisemitism https://t.co/w5C1kl9lA3
— Alyssa Miller-Hurley🎗️ (@alyjo85) March 13, 2026
From Colin; another science journal goes off the rails vis-à-vis biological sex:
🚨ALERT: Top-ranking ecology journal Ecology Letters has published a “Viewpoint” paper titled “There is No Consensus on Biological Sex.”
The authors call the “sex binary” a “simplistic and harmful ideolog[y].”
Yet they then claim that no view of sex (gamete-based, multivariate,… pic.twitter.com/3V7ksTgA9h
— Colin Wright (@SwipeWright) March 10, 2026
One from my feed. Sassy!
Sarah Vaughan is one of those voices that reminds you how sophisticated jazz can be. pic.twitter.com/0aU8BGmYPi
— Melodies & Masterpieces (@SVG__Collection) March 14, 2026
One I retweeted from The Auschwitz Memorial:
This Dutch Jewish boy was gassed to death, along with his parents, as soon as he arrived in Auschwitz. He was six years old, and would be 88 today if he had lived. https://t.co/8eFjI7Lgop
— Jerry Coyne (@Evolutionistrue) March 15, 2026
Two posts from Dr. Cobb. First, Marco Rubio in clown shoes:
hmm
— derek guy (@dieworkwear.bsky.social) 2026-03-11T09:02:35.635Z
. . . and look at the head on this spider!
A funky Pholcid from Mexico. I had no idea that there were Cellar spiders with weird heads. Weird heads are one of my favourite features a spider can have. Modisimus sp.#Pholcidae #CellarSpider #iNaturalist
— Thomas Barbin (@thomasbarbin.bsky.social) 2026-03-09T17:17:19.570Z
Not sure if this was left out by the NYT (probably), but NBC has reported that two of the four killed were Ghazali’s brothers, who were both members of Hezbollah: