“The Wagner mutiny goes to show there’s little if anything the United States or anyone else can do to save Moscow from its own mistakes — and there’s no reason to try,” thunders the Liberal Patriot’s Peter Juul. “At times it seems that a number of American and European policy analysts and pundits fear a Russian loss in Ukraine more than the Kremlin” because of “the potentially disastrous consequences” in Russia. Yet “it’s not our job to save Russia from the fallout” of its “decisions — nor is it even possible.” Absolutely, we “need to be prepared for a potential political breakdown in Russia — but we also need to recognize that there’s not much we can do about it.”
“Hunter Biden’s long-running tax and gun scandals went under the rug” last week, argues Susan Shelley at the Orange County Register, and “you won’t make any money betting” against his plea deal’s approval. But “the same DOJ and FBI that made a fake Trump-Russia investigation materialize out of thin air made Hunter Biden’s shady financial crimes vanish.” Per IRS whistleblower Gary Shapley, “month after month, year after year, career employees of the Department of Justice denied investigative steps, rejected enforcement operations, and even tipped off Hunter Biden’s attorneys about developments,” with Justice refusing to “allow IRS investigators to look further” into Hunter’s infamous “I am sitting here with my father” text message threatening a business associate. Indeed, “the investigation was the cover-up.”
“I’m speaking out now for women’s sports, because I don’t want the same situation to happen again,” implores former Olympic swimmer Sharron Davies in a Spiked interview, comparing trans women jocks to East German female athletes, whose use of testosterone enabled nearly two decades’ domination of Olympic events. The International Olympics Committee did nothing to stop that; today, “the IOC has not looked at the science around trans athletes” but “only listened to trans activists and lobbyists.” Now “having an open category and a female category is probably the most sensible way forward,” so “we don’t have a 20-year experiment at the cost of female athletes.”
What potential GOP prez nominees could offer “broader national appeal than either Trump or DeSantis?” asks The Hill’s Douglas Schoen. Well, beyond South Carolina’s Sen. Tim Scott and ex-Gov. Nikki Haley, “one person who could potentially galvanize the Republican electorate,” though “not now in the race,” is Gov. Glenn Youngkin (Va.). He scored an upset win in 2021 “by avoiding Trumpian style politics — without directly denouncing Trump or his voters — and running a center-right campaign centered on quality-of-life issues like the economy, public safety, education and personal freedoms, which is precisely what Republicans need to do at the national level to remain viable.” He polls well against President Biden and “is also more popular than both Biden and Trump with independent voters.” So “if Trump and DeSantis bludgeon each other into political oblivion,” the GOP “would be wise to strongly consider Glenn Youngkin.”
The press has “derided” Robert F. Kennedy Jr. for promoting “baseless theories, often justifiably,” writes The Wall Street Journal’s Allysia Finley. But some of his points — e.g., that “Covid lockdowns harmed lower-income Americans while enriching billionaires like Jeff Bezos — have a kernel of truth.” Liberals mock his “antivaccine activism,” yet it “flows from the same fanatical font as the environmental zealotry they too have embraced.” “Progressive beliefs, no matter how preposterous, are beyond question” for a “partisan press,” while “views that cut against the grain,” even if scientifically well-founded, “are silenced.” “Justified criticisms of Covid lockdowns have been peremptorily dismissed as ‘baseless’ in much the same way as Mr. Kennedy’s questionable vaccine claims.” No wonder Americans “don’t trust the media.”
— Compiled by The Post Editorial Board