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From the right: The Left vs. Disabled Workers
“Tens of thousands of people with severe disabilities enjoy productive jobs,” notes Timothy P. Carney at the Washington Examiner, but now Kamala Harris “has pledged to outlaw them” by targeting “a special minimum wage for disabled workers” when it’s “simply not a possibility” for the workers to find a spot in a competitive labor market. “The primary value of these special jobs is providing purpose, skills, camaraderie, and a small sense of independence for adults” with severe disabilities. Yet “the more severely disabled, many of whom are nonverbal, cannot lobby for themselves on Capitol Hill.” So Democrats “get away with claiming to be helping the vulnerable and needy, but only because they can safely ignore the most vulnerable and needy, who lack political power.”
Media watch: Wishing for Trump To ‘Go Away’
News coverage of the second assassination attempt on Donald Trump’s life has “retailed claims that, eh, the shooter couldn’t have had a clean shot” anyway or cited Trump’s rhetoric, suggesting he’s “somehow been asking for it,” roars Commentary’s John Podhoretz. Many won’t “consider the profound seriousness of a potential new age of assassination” since “it represents a dark wish fulfillment.” What they’d like, “more than anything,” is for Trump “to go away.” Yet the consequences of an assassination “would be unthinkably dangerous,” tearing the country apart. And: “If we do reap the whirlwind from the fulfillment of your darkest desires, history will know whom to blame — not that it will matter, because the damage will have been done.”
Conservative: AMLO, Dems Target Judiciary
President Biden and Mexican President Andrés Manuel López Obrador are each pushing judicial reforms “that would undermine long-standing constitutional checks and balances,” observes Merrill Matthews at The Hill. And “Biden is denouncing AMLO’s efforts even as he seeks to do essentially the same thing.” Mexico’s high court often “stood in the way of AMLO doing what he wanted, just as the U.S. Supreme Court has blocked many of Biden’s unconstitutional actions.” AMLO and Democrats even cite the same justification: “Both AMLO and his Morena party and Biden and Democrats say the current judicial system is a threat to democracy. But what they really want is a high court that kowtows to progressive demands.”
Foreign desk: Hong Kong’s Jimmy Lai Dilemma
As the trial of pro-democracy newsman Jimmy Lai drags on, fumes The Wall Street Journal’s William McGurn, Hong Kong chief executive John Lee “would have the world believe that locking up democracy advocates and shutting down newspapers is business as usual for a world financial center.” But “the prosecution’s case has been exposed as weak and the negative publicity has given the Hong Kong government a black eye,” as Lai’s team “just filed a complaint with the United Nations Special Rapporteur on Torture.” “The government’s best bet now is to send out the word quietly that it would be open to a deal once it gets the face-saving conviction it demands. Thanks to Mr. Lee, the government’s alternatives are all bad: more sanctions, more international condemnation, more questions about Hong Kong’s attractiveness as a place to invest and do business.”
Crime beat: NYPD Scandal Emboldens the Left
“The resignation of NYPD commissioner Edward A. Caban amid a federal influence-peddling investigation,” warns City Journal’s Rafael A. Mangual, “will give ammunition to the department’s political adversaries, some of whom intend to challenge [Mayor] Adams in the next mayoral primary,” including ones who’ve “supported defunding the NYPD.” Others have backed bills that would’ve “fully eliminated cash bail and re-enfranchised felons.” The NYPD needs “capable and stable leadership” and “a legal and political environment that enables it to execute its crime-fighting mission.” But if police critics use Caban’s resignation “to bolster their anti-police agendas,” it “would jeopardize” the “public-safety gains made in the city over the last two years” thanks to “increased enforcement efforts.” Cops and citizens “deserve better than . . . politicians exploiting scandals for political advantage.”
— Compiled by The Post Editorial Board