Chicagoland: Smollett Plays Victim . . . Again
“When brave Cook County Judge James Linn shocked” former “Empire” star Jussie Smollett by sentencing him to 150 days in jail for staging that “fake anti-black anti-gay hate crime” and then lying about it, Smollett “reached for the one thing he knows”: drama, cracks John Kass at Johnkassnews.com. In court, “he chewed the scenery with gusto, adding a raised fist like some cartoon ’60s revolutionary, jumping seamlessly into his new role: Jussie Smollett — innocent social justice warrior martyred and wronged by ‘the man.’ ” Smollett will “never admit that he played with racial fire, fanned early on by an adoring/witless corporate legacy media” or that “his lies could have sparked violence.” Perhaps now “he’ll write and publish his ‘Letter from Cook County Jail’ and star in it himself.”
Pandemic journal: Get Rid of Masks on Planes
The Transportation Security Administration has extended mask-wearing on airplanes for another month as it awaits guidance from the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, rails Karol Markowicz at Spectator World. Yet the idea that “a piece of cloth will protect you while you sit sandwiched between 200 other passengers inches away from you is an idea only our incompetent and compromised CDC could invent.” Face it: “Masks don’t work. There has not been a single study, with a control group, that proves otherwise.” The CDC knows this. It knows that “masks do not work for viral spread. They never have and never will.” It’s time airlines “fight back.”
Conservative: Sanctions Won’t Ease Vlad’s Grip
“Vladimir Putin is now running the Communist revolutionaries’ playbook” on Russian finances, threatening to confiscate foreign assets and renege on Moscow’s debts, notes National Review’s Jim Geraghty. This comes as the world cuts off Russia “in just about every conceivable form,” though Putin actually might not mind that: After all, he “doesn’t seem like a guy who likes seeing Russians . . . watching Disney movies, using Apple computers or driving Jeeps,” because it’s “a reminder” that foreign countries can do “something better than Russians.” And though sanctions may be “the most consequential non-kinetic tool in our arsenal,” their effect may be doubtful given Putin’s grip on his people: “Within Russia, it is literally illegal to call the invasion of Ukraine a ‘war’ instead of a ‘special military operation.’ ”
Politics desk: GOP’s Chance To Gain Minorities
Democrats who think a “less white” America will mean more power for them “may want to curb their enthusiasm,” warns Noah Peterson at the American Mind. Race is becoming “less predictive of politics,” with Hispanic voters “now split evenly between Republicans and Democrats” and big Trump gains among Asian voters in 2020. Polling data show “that black opinion is not monolithic,” with splits on crime and affirmative action. So “Republicans can demonstrate how group well-being improves for minorities under their policies” — for example, “[n]o one benefits more from lower crime rates than the victims of crime,” who are “disproportionately black.” “Republicans have the chance to bring in new members” to a “party that believes your race is not the most important thing about you.”
From the right: Terror Victims Before Lawyers
In February, President Biden directed a federal court to hand billions in seized Afghan funds to about 150 US victims of the Taliban who have a court-backed claim, leaving “thousands” of other victims “empty-handed,” lament The Wall Street Journal’s editors. The move sidesteps a congressional pool set up for allocating money on an “equitable basis.” Why’d Biden bypass it? “The Occam’s razor answer is the influence of plaintiffs lawyers,” who stand to collect “up to a third of the multibillion-dollar payout,” even as lawyers’ fees for claims through Congress’ fund are capped at 15%. Lawmakers who represent other victims “should raise a fuss” — a “few trial lawyers shouldn’t be able to engineer a payout that enriches them at the expense of thousands of other deserving victims.”
— Compiled by The Post Editorial Board
