What Looms Ahead With Iran? ‘I think the president's going to hit Iran’

Hugh Hewitt turned to Robert C. O’Brien National Security Advisor under Trump in his first term. Hugh asked, “What do you think looms ahead with Iran?” O’Brien responds: Well, I think the president’s going to hit Iran and he’s very predictable. He gives these bad guys a chance to do the right thing. When they don’t, he hits ’em and he hits ’em hard. And he’s given the Iranians a chance to give up their original program, which is a bare minimum for the United States. We have to have a nuclear-free hand. He’s given a chance to give up their ballistic missile program, and they’ve used those missiles to hit a married bases and our allies and friends in the region, and he’s given a chance to stop supplying the Houthis and Hezbollah and Hamas with weapons of mass destruction did hit Americans. So he’s given those three opportunities and I think they’re going to turn it down…. This is a very evil regime, perhaps most evil regime in the world. I mean, think about it, Hugh. They killed over 30,000 people last week or two weeks ago. That’s many more times than the Chinese killed in Tiananmen Square. These people deserve to go, and it’s not just their own people that they’ve killed. They’ve killed thousands of Americans. To me, the essence of America First is defending the American people, and I think that’s what President Trump believes in defending the American people means this regime goes who the Iranian people select afterwards, whether it’s a crown prince and he suggests that he’d come in a temporary role and oversee a transition to democracy or if they turned to a general or a civil leader. That’s really up to the Iranian people, but the current government and the current policy of killing Americans has to end (Hughniverse).

Supreme Court Lets California Redistricting Scheme Stand

A win for Gavin Newsom and Democrats. Amy Howe of SCOTUSblog: The Supreme Court on Wednesday afternoon cleared the way for California to use a new congressional map intended to give Democrats five additional seats in the U.S. House of Representatives. In a one-sentence order, the justices turned down a request from a group of California Republicans that would have required the state to continue to use the map in place for the last several federal elections in the state while their challenge to the map moves forward. There were no public dissents from the court’s ruling (SCOTUSblog).

Ryan Routh Sentenced to Life in Prison Over Trump Assassination Attempt

This is the man who tried to assassinate Trump at the Trump International Golf Club in West Palm Beach, Florida. His lawyer had pled repeatedly for lenience. Wall Street Journal: A 60-year-old Honolulu man who was convicted last fall of attempting to assassinate President Trump in 2024 was sentenced Wednesday to life in prison. Prosecutors said Ryan Routh plotted to kill Trump at Trump International Golf Club in West Palm Beach, Fla., in September 2024 when Trump was running for president. “Ryan Routh’s heinous attempted assassination of President Trump was not only an attack on our President—it was a direct assault against our entire democratic system,” U.S. Attorney General Pam Bondi said in a statement Wednesday. U.S. District Judge Aileen Cannon also sentenced Routh to an additional seven years in prison for other offenses related to the assassination plot…. Prosecutors said Routh planned for months to kill Trump to stop him from becoming president. Routh researched Trump’s campaign movements, his airplane, the golf club, firearms and ammunition and items he would need as a sniper, prosecutors said. On the day of the attempted assassination, Routh hid for hours as he waited for Trump to play golf. Upon being discovered by a Secret Service agent, Routh fled the scene, abandoning a rifle, prosecutors said (Wall Street Journal).

Man Charges NYPD Officer With Knife, Gets Shot—And Mayor Mamdani Visits the Attacker in the Hospital

On January 26, 22-year-old Jabez Chakraborty was holding a large kitchen knife and charged at NYPD officers who had responded to the emergency call. The officers tried to de-escalate, but ended up needing to fire. In response, Mayor Mandani is not concerned about his officer instead, he said: I spoke with the Chakraborty family, and I visited Jabez in the hospital, and there is no family who should have to endure this kind of pain (Nawfal). Also, Mamdani does not want to press charges. Fox News, quoting Mamdani:  “In viewing this footage, it is clear to me that what Jabez needs is mental health treatment, not criminal prosecution from a district attorney” (Fox News). This is another fitting example of why many are fleeing New York City. The dynamic is nicely captured in the opening of a piece at Tablet magazine: “My breaking point wasn’t getting mugged,” Josh Greenberg, a digital media strategist who left Park Slope, New York, in early 2022, told me. “It was realizing the city had more sympathy for the guy that mugged me than they did for me.” At a dinner a week following the attack, Josh’s friends, whom he’d known for years, criticized him for pressing charges after his phone was stolen, accusing him of “perpetuating cycles” and causing “harm” (Tablet).

Offices of X Raided in France

Threatened by and seeking to throttle back free speech. The Hill: Europe’s war on American tech companies is heating up. French authorities raided the headquarters of X in that country, and have summoned Elon Musk and former X CEO Linda Yaccarino to speak with the police. This is a serious escalation of European governments’ efforts to compel Musk and the leaders of other social media companies to fall in line and handle speech and tech the way it’s handled in Europe — namely, very little formal protection for free expression, and consequently, very little innovation in the tech sector (The Hill). Pavel Durov, CEO of Telegram: Don’t be mistaken: this is not a free country (Durov). Former State Department Official Mike Benz: Trump State Dept must IMMEDIATELY review all recs & comms btwn (1) Biden’s State Dept, esp US Amb to France & Embassy, & (2) all French Ministry of Justice & Ministry of Foreign Affairs contacts, for FULL INTERNAL AUDIT of coordination on disinformation & platform governance work…. You have no idea how deep this goes & how close the linkages are between the in-power French/Spanish gov’t officials executing this attack on X and the out-of-power US Censor-Plex working with French/Spanish regulators to fashion a proxy club for The Blob to retake power here (Benz). X’s Government Affairs Office: The Paris Public Prosecutor’s Office is plainly attempting to exert pressure on X’s senior management in the United States by targeting our French entity and employees, who are not the focus of this investigation (XGGA).

France Fast Reaching ‘Third-world status’

The Times UK reports: The French were founders of the European Union and for decades, they were among its wealthiest citizens. They looked down upon poorer peoples such as the Cypriots and the Italians, and considered the Germans their economic equals. Today, however, France is in the EU’s second division. For the third year running, its national wealth per head is below the bloc’s average — and indeed below that of Cyprus, according to figures from Eurostat, the statistics office. The French are falling behind the north Europeans and are being caught up by those in the east. According to the Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development, the Poles will be richer than them within ten years…. It is not only in Paris that the outlook is causing gloom. In an editorial, Le Télégramme, the regional daily in Brittany, said courage would be needed to overcome the country’s difficulties. It noted that little of this was in evidence among the political class (Times).

American Medical Association Says 'evidence is insufficient' for Trans Surgeries

This comes only a day after American Society of Plastic Surgeons moved in a similar direction (see Daybreak from Feb 4). The AMA looks to step away from surgery for minors, but retains affirmation of opposite-sex hormonal “treatment.” National Review: The AMA said in a statement to National Review that because “the evidence for gender-affirming surgical intervention in minors is insufficient for us to make a definitive statement . . . the AMA agrees with ASPS that surgical interventions in minors should be generally deferred to adulthood.” The AMA supports “evidence-based treatment,” including other types of gender-affirming care for minors, the organization added (National Review). David Strom: Gee, the AMA up to now has been almost hysterical in its support for gender-affirming care, but is beginning to backtrack. The modified limited hangout is already that new research, such as the Cass Report, are demonstrating that there is insufficient evidence to back medical treatment for what is obviously a psychological problem, but that is just crap, and obviously so. It is logically impossible to maintain that a treatment is proven “gold standard care,” as has been maintained up until yesterday, and then reverse course upon the sudden discovery that there isn’t any such evidence at all. They aren’t claiming, at least so far, that the evidence shows that their previous evidence is wrong; they are admitting that they never had the “evidence” in the first place (Hot Air).

JK Rowling on the Youth Trans Floodgates Opening; ‘This will go down in history as one of the worst medical scandals of all time’

The famed author has been stalwart on this issue … admirably so: As the floodgates open, and more and more detransitioners sue the clinicians who subjected them to an unregulated medical experiment, gender identity activists will almost certainly continue to ignore any evidence that fails to support their preferred narrative. They’ll keep insisting that hardly any transitioned people regret their irreversible procedures, that gender clinicians know exactly what they’re doing, that surgeries, cross-sex hormones and puberty blockers are of proven benefit and that minors who’re denied these treatments will to kill themselves. All of this is a lie…. This will go down in history as one of the worst medical scandals of all time. Adults inside and outside the medical profession sold troubled young people like Varian the idea that all of their complex trauma would be resolved by removing healthy body parts. As more and more detransitioners arrive in court, the public will learn the full extent of the harm done to kids in the name of an ideology. Clinicians performing these ‘treatments’ will go down in history as barbarous activists who betrayed a sacred oath: to do no harm. But we should never forget how many people outside the medical profession urged these young people on, gleefully assuring them that anyone advising caution was an evil bigot…. Never forget, because only by learning the lesson can we stop this happening again (Rowling).

How to Explain Woke: ‘the Great Feminization thesis’

The entire phenomenon of woke is not the fruits of Critical Race Theory or another updated variant of Marxism. It is, instead, the outworking of the feminization of the major institutions in our culture. That’s the argument of author Helen Andrews (yes, a woman). She summed up her thesis for Compact Magazine: Cancel culture is simply what women do whenever there are enough of them in a given organization or field. That is the Great Feminization thesis, which the same author later elaborated upon at book length: Everything you think of as “wokeness” is simply an epiphenomenon of demographic feminization. The explanatory power of this simple thesis was incredible. It really did unlock the secrets of the era we are living in. Wokeness is not a new ideology, an outgrowth of Marxism, or a result of post-Obama disillusionment. It is simply feminine patterns of behavior applied to institutions where women were few in number until recently. How did I not see it before? … The substance fits, too. Everything you think of as wokeness involves prioritizing the feminine over the masculine: empathy over rationality, safety over risk, cohesion over competition…. The Great Feminization is truly unprecedented (Compact).

Congressional Leaders Gather in DC for 2026 National Gathering for Prayer and Repentance

The event was hosted by Family Research Council and the Well Versed at the Museum of the Bible. Among the attendees were Sen. Ted Cruz (R-TX), Rep. Mary Miller (R-IL), Rep. Randy Weber (R-TX), Rep. Daniel Webster (R-FL), Rep. Gary Palmer (R-AL) and Sen. Roger Marshall (R-KS), who prayed: From the Old Testament, the book of Joel:  “Even now, declares the Lord, return to me with all your heart, with fasting and weeping and mourning. Render your heart and not your garments. Return to the Lord your God, for He is gracious and compassionate, slow to anger and abounding and love, and He relents for the sending calamity.” God, forgive us of our sins as a nation. Forgive us of the millions of lives of the unborn that we’ve lost. Forgive us of our sexual immorality. Forgive us when we reject family. Forgive us when we reject the sex that you have given us, the biological sex that you have given us. God forgive us when we worship things of this world, the idolatry, materialism. Help us to repent and grow closer to You. In Jesus’ name (FRC). Full video (NGPR).