Biden’s ‘escalation paralysis’, Dem billionaires Ron DeSantis
Ukraine desk: Biden’s ‘Escalation Paralysis’
“Escalation paralysis continues to inhibit the Biden administration’s willingness to squarely get behind Ukraine and help it” defeat Russia, argue Jonathan Sweet & Mark Toth at The Hill. “Inexplicably, the Kremlin’s conventional military, in the eyes of Washington, is still the towering Cold War bogeyman that must be contained but not dared to be defeated.” Biden’s “ ‘just enough’ calculus is predicated on Putin and Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky coming to the negotiating table. Neither is likely to do so.” Net result? A “forever war,” though Russia “can ill afford to escalate to a nuclear standoff.” Zelensky’s forces are “a capable military. The once vaunted Russian military has lost a step and is vulnerable.” Ukraine can prevail — if “Washington overcomes its self-inflicted paralysis.”
Crime watch: Fewer Cops, Less Public Safety
“When bad guys walk free and brave cops have to fear for their jobs for doing their jobs, crime tends to go up,” laments The New York Times’ Bret Stephens of public safety in Chicago and elsewhere. After the 2020 George Floyd protests, “high levels of voluntary resignations and early retirements” by police coincided with a “growing sense of impunity among the criminally inclined.” In New York, where shoplifting by organized gangs and recidivists has soared, the new bail law “has enabled such offenders to avoid jail time.” And that “lax enforcement when it comes to petty criminality has led to big-time criminality.” The “sense of disorder, menace and fear” will end “when a critical mass of voters recovers the simple combination of common sense and political will.”
From the right: DOD Feckless on Security
Defense Secretary Lloyd Austin “ordered a review” of department security programs, policies and procedures after the classified documents leak, but the time for that “was long before this incident,” especially since “this isn’t DOD’s first rodeo when it comes to meandering classified material,” thunders the Boston Herald’s editorial board. Two cases last year saw former DOD employees charged with trying to sell America’s secrets, and “there have been other alleged secret-swaps over the years.” That should’ve “prompted the ‘list culling’ happening today.” Crises can’t be “the catalysts” to improve government functioning. “The fallout from the leaked documents continues worldwide, but the fault for this breach is shared by many.”
From the left: Dem Billionaires Made DeSantis
In 2018, Republican Ron DeSantis won the governor’s race in Florida with “unintended assistance from two Democratic billionaires, Tom Steyer and George Soros,” grumbles John B. Judis at The Liberal Patriot. Weeks before the Democratic primary, Tallahassee Mayor Andrew Gillum “was running fourth,” with just 7% of the vote. But “as the ‘progressive’ candidate,” his PAC drew $2.1 million in donations from Steyer and Soros, fueling a narrow win over ex-Rep. Gwen Graham. Then Gillum’s “severe weaknesses” kicked in, including “extreme positions” and a “cloud of corruption.” It seemed another $10 million from Steyer might elect him, but “two weeks before the November election” another corruption shoe dropped, and DeSantis squeaked to victory. “If Steyer and Soros had not stepped in,” Florida would likely still be a purple state, not deep red.
Climate beat: Methane’s Deadly — or Maybe Not
A March study cuts previous estimates of methane’s warming effect by 30%, but “if you’ve been following the science, you’re probably quite dizzy,” snarks Commentary’s Abe Greenwald. Only a month earlier, Inside Climate News reported that Stanford scientists “concluded that the EPA has radically undervalued the climate impact of methane,” even as the Environmental Defense Fund “heralded” the Democrats’ Inflation Reduction Act as “a game-changer on methane.” It “only took three years” for the truth to come out about the “lack of scientific rigor” on COVID policies; with climate change, “we’re going on three decades of expert fear-mongering,” and the “fog” keeps getting thicker. “Studies are funded to combat studies. Methane will soon be found to be more deadly than we ever thought.”
— Compiled by The Post Editorial Board
