Good morning, and a fine one it is. Today is Thursday, Jan 8, 2026. Grab a cuppa and some strudel. We have a lot to discuss.
Today in History:
1790: First U.S. President George Washington delivers the first State of the Union address
1798:11th Amendment ratified, judicial powers construed.
1908: First subway tunnel connecting Manhattan with Brooklyn under the East River opens
1940: Britain's first World War II rationing.
1964: President Lyndon B. Johnson declares "War on Poverty." Arguably, it didn't work.
1966: The Beatles' album Rubber Soul goes to #1 and stays there for six weeks, while the single "We Can Work It Out" also charts at #1 for three weeks.
1982: AT&T agrees to divest itself of 22 Bell System companies.
2018: The self-declared Republic of Somaliland passes its first-ever law against rape.
Birthdays today include: William Hartnell, English actor (the first Doctor in Doctor Who), Evelyn Wood (speed reader), Broadway and film Actor Jose Ferrer (The Caine Mutiny, Cyrano de Bergerac), actor Larry Storch (F Troop), Soupy Sales, Charles Osgood, Elvis Presley, Shirley Bassey, country singer Christy Lane, singer Little Anthony, Stephen Hawking, David Bowie, The Hollies’ Terry Sylvester, John Podesta, and Kim Jong-Un.
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It’s happening!
Admittedly, my crystal ball was a bit foggy, and my prediction took a day or two longer than I thought it would. I actually put a hold on yesterday's column after writing it because I had the feeling, as I explained to the good folks here at PJ Media, that something was going to happen overnight that would be hotter than my "Desert Island Discs" column. Nothing earthshaking happened overnight in Iran as I'd thought would happen, so I went with the "Desert Island Discs" column as I originally planned.
Be that as it may, it is happening now. This may well take a bit of time to complete, but I believe that the downfall of the Islamic regime in Iran has reached critical mass and is now unstoppable. It is wonderful to see. The Iranian people have finally reached the international “Enough!” line, and are overthrowing the Ayatollah (who is already trying to make arrangements to move to Russia) and shifting their support to the crown prince.
As far as I can see, this was inevitable, once Khomeini essentially declared a holy war on his own people. Fear kept the people in line with the poisoned ideology for a while, but history has shown us time and again that kind of control only lasts for so long. Eventually, the people wake up, get ticked off, and take over.
I am reminded in this situation of a line Alan Alda once uttered in a MASH episode that has struck me ever since.
Frank, do you know what a hero is? Ninety-nine times out of a hundred, he's somebody who's tired enough and cold enough and hungry enough not to give a damn. I don't give a damn.
That’s exactly what is going on in Iran today, right now, this very minute, as you read this. The people doing the rebelling are not heroes, particularly. They didn't set out to be such. Rather, they are as Alda describes them. They’ve had enough. They're simply trying to survive , having seen too many of their countrymen fall.
And guess who the rebels are asking for help from? Israel and the U.S. They're even chanting Donald Trump's name. Apparently, the Iranian people, in large part, have learned that Israel and the U.S. are not the devils that the Ayatollah's regime (and dare I say this, the Democrats here in this country) have been telling them. They've even reportedly named a street after Trump in Tehran.
As an aside, it's interesting to watch the reactions of Democrats here in the States to all of this, which are best described as varying between wiping egg off their faces and an embarrassed silence. It is in no way turning out the way they'd hoped. In both the cases of Iran and Venezuela, the citizens of those countries are decidedly not following the script that our leftists here in the States would prefer. They've been quite successful in exposing just how reality-deprived they are on these topics, and they're starting to notice.
Israel, for their part, has already offered the Iranian people help. The U.S. has already provided that help by basically strangling the Islamic Regime's economy with direct sanctions and shutting off Venezuela's Nicolás Maduro. As I said yesterday, don’t think for a second that what’s happening in Venezuela, and the soon-to-be toppling of the Islamic terrorists running Iran and the Cuban government with them, are not connected.
Look, even if Maduro wasn't such a large aid in keeping Iran afloat, it would have been worth taking him out on humanitarian grounds for the Venezuelan people alone. With Trump taking his recent action on Maduro, the last lifeline for the Khomeini regime (save for Moscow, which has its own problems at the moment) is cut, and the result is what we see.
There are other things that these events are driving, too. Syria is now talking with us again, and importantly, they're also talking with Israel. Who would have considered this even possible, say, a year and a half ago?
What happens now?
I have said now for a number of years (most recently regarding the fall of the Soviet Union) that the culture will always prevail in the end. Yes, sometimes it takes a while, but you can put your money on the underlying culture winning out in the end. Eventually, the cultural values that the people had before the totalitarians moved in will take over again. Historically, we've seen this trend in Poland, Romania, and the other former states captive to the Soviets. We also saw it after the fall of the Nazi regime. That's happening now, in both Iran and Venezuela.
You see, over time, government is always weaker than the culture it tries to usurp. That is why I've been writing for decades now that literally any government that wants to remain in power should first respect the culture that gave it life, and not try to overturn it, as has happened in the cases of Venezuela and Iran. History has taught us that permanent change of a culture by means of the power of government, and particularly by fear of that government, is an impossibility. Both Venezuela and Iran today are prime examples of that lesson.
Once that tipping point is reached, the cultural values that have been hidden for years suddenly start coming out, as the people who benefited from the murderous clique now being rebelled against, see which way the wind is blowing and understand that there’s a choice in front of them. Adapt, or disappear.
I believe that Iran is now at a critical stage, as are the other players. Anyone watching the situation is well aware of the possibility of the Ayatollah's flying monkeys lashing out in their desperation, and in an attempt to distract the world's attention from the internal strife. They've even threatened as much.
That kind of thing is always a possibility, but my read is that it becomes less so as time goes on. They've been on a full war footing since 1979 and haven't made any progress in all that time. Even if they know that anything they attempt now will be a futile gesture which will end in them being ended, themselves. They may still want to go scorched earth, as Zealots often do, but increasingly, as the protests get louder, such action is out of their reach. Understand me here; The Ayatollah attempting to do anything of the sort would seem to be wholly dependent on the support of the Iranian population. Support that at the moment, I do believe he is finding in very short supply, and indeed is likely even shorter than he thinks.
I should add that this is exactly why we've never wanted Iran to have nukes, which even the Islamist thugs have always considered a last resort. If they actually had any nukes, we both know they'd not be far off of actually using them. Fortunate indeed is the world that they don't have them.
As it is now, watch closely because Iran is now a story that will finish rather suddenly.
PS: As I hit the "send" button, I notice that Sarah Anderson has a column up about Colombia's Gustavo Petro, who has apparently decided to behave himself:
Meanwhile, publicly, Petro was making all these "Come get me" speeches aimed at Trump after Trump warned him to "watch his a**," following the Maduro capture. Trump was not going to physically come at him, especially with only seven or eight months left in Petro's presidency, but it sounded like he was going to harass the heck out of him until he started cooperating with Trump's new plan for the hemisphere.
[...]
The call, which was initiated by Petro, reportedly lasted up to an hour, and it was cordial and positive. I don't think this is the start to a beautiful new friendship, but I guess watching the U.S. military capture one of the only other commie allies left on your continent and throwing him in a jail in New York has a certain element of persuasion about it.
Superb, Sarah. Just superb.
So we can add Colombia to the list of places that we may improve by carrying a big stick and demonstrating that we’re not afraid of using it. It's amazing what happens when you have someone who actually knows what he's doing behind the Resolute Desk, isn't it?
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Thought for the day: “Strive not to be a success, but rather to be of value.” —Albert Einstein
I'll see you here tomorrow.
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