POLITICS: Homeland Security’s bunglers, Greenies’ deep-freeze Rx and other commentary

Minneapolis beat: Homeland Security’s Bunglers

After the death of Alex Pretti in Minneapolis, about a dozen senior immigration officials “tell me they have grown increasingly uneasy & frustrated with some of the claims & narratives DHS pushed in the aftermath of the shooting,” reports Bill Melugin on X. “While they say it was a terrible decision to show up with a gun and inject himself” into the situation, “there is no indication Pretti was there to murder law enforcement.” Rather it seems “the disarmed firearm may have had an accidental discharge that spooked the agents, and they shot.” Although widely in “support of the deportation agenda,” these insiders worry “about the way it is being carried out,” “the messaging that comes with it” and “that ICE is routinely blamed for the actions of Border Patrol, a completely separate agency.”

Eye on energy: Greenies’ Deep-Freeze Rx

“The weekend’s arctic blast has put much of the U.S. grid through a stress test and served as another alert about the growing risks to electric-power reliability,” explain The Wall Street Journal’s editors. “Americans can be grateful the Biden crowd didn’t succeed in forcing all coal plants to shut down” as “grid operators, the utilities and the Trump Energy Department had to pull out all stops to keep the lights and heat on for tens of millions of Americans” — even waiving “emissions rules so fossil-fuel plants could run at maximum capacity.” Solar, wind and battery “sources contributed little power,” confirming they “aren’t reliable during inclement weather.” Is it the greens’ goal “to reduce carbon emissions by making Americans freeze?”

Storm central: Look What’s Gone Missing

Conspicuously absent from media reports on winter storm Fern “is the obligatory mention of ‘climate change’ as the cause,” notes the Issues & Insights editorial board. “It seems that bad winter weather is just weather. Whereas bad summer weather is always — always — and prominently blamed on our burning fossil fuels.” OK: One CNN piece cited “expert” claims “that ‘severe winter weather events are still possible — and perhaps even more likely’ because of global warming,” but last year a Bloomberg piece quoted “climate ‘experts” claiming that ‘the long-term trend, especially in the normally colder parts of the U.S. and other countries, is one of warmer winters with less of the white stuff’,” while Time just last month cited “climate ‘experts’ explaining how ‘climate change is causing shorter, warmer winters.’ ” “Whatever this is, it ain’t science.”

Centrist: Why Credit-Card Caps Backfire

“Not a single bank has complied” with President Trump’s call to cap credit-card interest rates at 10%, cheers The Free Press’ Joe Nocera. Phew: Without “the ability to impose high interest rates,” banks simply wouldn’t extend unsecured credit to most people; high rates let them cover their losses as “more than 19 million accounts default each year. In 2024, that amounted to $59 billion.” Under the cap, all but the rich and upper middle class would “lose their cards” because banks would lose money otherwise. Limiting credit-card rates “won’t eliminate the need for credit,” so higher-risk borrowers would have to use “payday lenders” and “loan sharks,” whose rates are truly usurious.

Campus watch: ‘Free Speech’ Isn’t Free

“I can tell you that ‘free speech’ isn’t free,” sighs Kristan Hawkins at RealClearPolitics. She sets up events at colleges nationwide, but “manipulative schools have worked hard to develop financial and logistical obstacles to student speech — from special, additional, and often last-minute insurance to requirements for bomb-sniffing dogs.” Other barriers include a “religious gag rule,” endless delays, trigger warnings to discourage attendance, cancellations due to fear of violence and doxxing. Her group, Students for Life of America, “has endured bomb threats, vandalizations, stolen and damaged property, physical attacks, urine throwing, stalking, student doxxing, and general cruelty.” And “threats of rape and murder are common.” Without better support, “many will be priced out of the public arena.”

— Compiled by The Post Editorial Board