Tory: Put Up or Shut Up, Europe
To European leaders who whine they “can’t trust Washington anymore,” Boris Johnson says in The Wall Street Journal: “Show us what you’re made of.” “If Europeans want the chance to seize leadership from the U.S. and do things differently, then” now’s the time. If Europe truly wants the Ukraine war to end, “give them the means to take out the factories that make Russia’s drones.” Or act to “unfreeze Mr. Putin’s assets, and give the cash to the Ukrainians” as a start on war reparations. Europe’s leaders must show “that they are willing to do something big, risky and strategically autonomous to help Ukraine, which they show no sign of doing — or else they need to put a sock in it.”
From the right: Wes Moore’s Lies Pile Up
Maryland Gov. Wes Moore’s 2028 hopes are “imploding” amid his rising count of “self-aggrandizing and provably false assertions,” snarks the Washington Free Beacon’s editorial board. He can’t show his supposed academic work at Oxford, the basis for his pose as a “foremost expert” on “radical Islam.” He recalls a “difficult childhood in Baltimore” — where he lived only during college — and imagined he’d won a Bronze Star. In the wake of Free Beacon reporting debunking his claim that the Ku Klux Klan drove his family out of the country in the 1920s, his comms team “went ballistic,” insisting that a racist failure to understand the “vagaries and inconsistencies” of black Americans’ “oral tradition” explains away Moore’s “false statements and prevarications.” Sorry: “Accusing” critics “of racism while offering no substantive response” just won’t fly.
Liberal: This Reality Kills Dems’ Image
In many places, “progressive capture makes it harder for Democrats to present themselves as a viable alternative to a broader segment of voters,” grumbles Alicia Nieves at Compact. Dems’ key “problem does not arise from their actions in Washington, but from the bad outcomes in cities and states where Democrats hold power.” Argh: The “unsound state laws and city policies advanced by” urban progressives now define “Democratic governance.” Since 2024, centrist Dems hoped to solve this “simply by selecting more moderate candidates and refining campaign messaging.” No: “Progressive policies have led to rising crime, uncontrolled spending, recurring fiscal shortfalls, higher taxes, and visible mismanagement.” To win the White House, national Democrats must “regain control over the policy direction of progressive Democratic-run states and cities.”
Fed watch: Warsh’s ‘Transformative’ Agenda
“If Kevin Warsh’s record is any indication, he aspires to be a transformative” Federal Reserve chief, argues Milton Ezrati at City Journal. He’d change “how the Fed interacts with the public, the Treasury, and Congress.” He sees inflation as a “choice” — the result of “excessive” government spending — and warns of “mission creep,” i.e., focusing on “peripheral matters” like DEI and climate change, distracting from the top priority, “price stability,” and inviting “congressional and administrative” interference. His agenda “will certainly face resistance from current Fed governors and staff,” but success “will represent a significant change from the status quo,” with “the Fed committing to its core responsibility, rather than acting as a one-size-fits-all arm of government.”
China beat: Hong Kong’s Now a ‘Testing Ground’
China’s persecution of Hong Kong publisher and pro-democracy activist Jimmy Lai is “the most high-profile of a series of arrests and imprisonments under a draconian National Security Law,” notes Semafor’s Andy Browne. Investors so far “seem unfazed,” but it’s “naïve” “to think that Hong Kong’s clampdown on speech won’t affect its long-term prospects.” Notably, financial “analysts have gone underground to avoid getting into trouble, according to Bloomberg.” And “the number of publicly available research reports has dwindled. Some analysts use burner phones.” While the city retains the low taxes and “light regulatory touch” that made it such an appealing “haven for capital,” it’s now a “testing ground” for Milton Friedman’s “thesis that a lack of political freedom will, eventually, undermine the markets.”
— Compiled by The Post Editorial Board
