Conservative: DOJ’s ‘Insane’ Trump Indictment
“The idea that our Justice Department can indict someone, especially the sitting president’s main political rival” — Donald Trump — “over speech that’s protected by the First Amendment is simply insane,” roars The Federalist’s John Daniel Davidson. “It puts us firmly into banana republic territory” and “millions of Americans” who share Trump’s view that the 2020 election was stolen are now “at risk.” It means “the First Amendment” is dead; you can’t “contradict the Justice Department’s official narrative,” especially if you then “have the temerity to run for high office.” The truth? “It doesn’t matter” even if Trump lied about the election results; that’s a “political matter, not a legal one” — “precisely the kind of thing that can only be settled by voters,” not Biden DOJ “thugs.”
Watchdog: Let NYers See Wind-Power Costs
Developers contracted to build offshore wind turbines for New York are demanding potentially “billions of dollars in additional subsidies,” warns the Empire Center’s Cam Macdonald. Those subsidies would get tacked on to customers’ bills, yet the companies won’t let the public see how much they’re demanding or the reason for the greater charges. And though the Public Service Commission took steps to reopen the contracts, it “redacted” that info on its website — prompting New York City and large electricity customers to file a motion to compel its release. When lawmakers passed New York’s Freedom of Information Law, they declared “the government is the public’s business” and access to information shouldn’t be thwarted. That should be true, insists Macdonald, “of PSC proceedings on billions of dollars of subsidies.”
Libertarian: FBI Abuses Its Foreign-Spying Tool
The FBI’s foreign-surveillance database, authorized by the Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Act, “was intended to track foreign spies and potential terrorists but has predictably morphed into a way for law enforcement agencies to get a warrantless peek at Americans’ phone records, emails, and other electronic communications,” gripes Reason’s Eric Boehm. Even a new report by a White House panel flags “inappropriate” queries pertaining to US citizens and recommends FBI agents get additional training. Meanwhile, adds Boehm, “lawmakers on both sides of the aisle have spoken out about the need for reforms” in advance of the December deadline for the program’s reauthorization. “Revoking the FBI’s ability to use” the tool to “investigate routine crimes ought to be the starting point for congressional negotiations” over its future.
Neocon: Which Prez Is Worse?
Former President “Donald Trump is widely and passionately hated,” but President Biden’s shocking criminal connections are “neutralizing Trump’s negatives” in the public eye, remarks Commentary’s Abe Greenwald. “While Trump faces scores of federal charges and multiple court cases, Joe Biden stands to lose more politically from his current predicament than does Trump from his own ongoing scandals.” Why? Americans are used to Trump’s shenanigans, but viewing “Biden as a greedy and unprincipled influence peddler” is new. As the Hunter Biden drama continues, voters will reweigh the faults of both men. And Trump’s accusations of “a thoroughly crooked establishment” aren’t far-fetched if the Biden rumors prove true, complicating Biden’s attempt to paint Trump as “the mortal enemy of American democracy.”
From the right: WH Is Clueless on Drug Crisis
“Over 100,000 people died by drug overdose last year,” thunders Charles Fain Lehman at UnHerd, but politicians are “acting like everything is fine.” Witness “the Biden administration’s response” — a plan “to continue what it has been doing up until now, only at greater scale.” In other words, “we’ve tried very little, and ideas are not forthcoming.” “Policymakers still haven’t internalised the monumental scale of the crisis”: “Drugs constitute the leading cause of death among Americans under 50.” The answer? Letting the public know that “no amount of drug use is safe,” “shutting down open air drug markets” and “going after drug dealers who kill their clients.” “What we’re doing now isn’t working. And until policymakers understand that, no change will be possible.”
— Compiled by The Post Editorial Board