POLITICS: The Biden senility cover-up gang, why censors always lose and other commentary

From the right: The Biden Senility Cover-up Gang

“We’ve all just accepted that Biden isn’t really running his own White House,” writes National Review’s Jim Geraghty. Yet “you can make a strong argument” that the effort to hide Joe’s senility “is the biggest, worst, and most consequential presidential scandal of all time.” The Wall Street Journal reported “that Biden was in rough shape from the start of his presidency, or at least by spring of 2021,” and aides covered for him. But it’s not just their fault: “It’s on the candidate’s family to be realistic with him.” “It’s on the longtime friends and circle of advisers to be blunt.” “It’s on the media to ask the hard questions, and on the candidate’s party to have realistic expectations.” “Think about how many layers of safeguards failed here.”

Speech desk: Why Censors Always Lose

“The US has an anti-free-speech movement that began in higher education and has now metastasized among the media, government and large corporations,” notes Jonathan Turley at Spiked. So defenders need to be clear on why free speech “is indispensable.” Yet it’s impossible to “name a single censorship system that has succeeded in stopping an idea or movement.” This is “one reason to be cautiously optimistic about the future of free speech. The anti-free-speech movement isn’t working. This is despite the fact we’ve never seen anything like” the current coalition “united against free speech.” That’s because “freedom of speech is a natural right. It belongs to us because we can’t be fully human without it.” “Ultimately, free speech can’t be crushed so long as humans are still around.”

Gender wars: Abigail Shrier, Utterly Vindicated

“For exposing what historians will likely judge to be one of the great medical scandals of our time,” roars The Free Press’ editorial board, Abigail Shrier and her book Irreversible Damage were “targeted, threatened, and vilified.” The book caused boycotts and walkouts, including by “individuals and institutions” meant “to protect our freedom of expression” (like the ACLU). But Shrier’s been vindicated by emerging research. The UK health secretary announced “an ‘indefinite ban’ on puberty blockers.” And “just over half” of US states have restricted gender transition for minors, as have “a growing number of Western countries, including the UK, Denmark, Finland and Sweden.” “The truth of what [Shrier] revealed has been comprehensively substantiated.”

NY watch: Public Employee Headcount Soars

After “New York’s state government workforce shrank during the coronavirus pandemic,” thunders the Empire Center’s Ken Girardin, public-employee unions used the decrease “to press Governor Hochul and state lawmakers for more hiring and costly giveaways to benefit their members.” As of October, New York had 223,760 employees — up “4 percent from 216,174 a year prior.” Yet the unions want to return to “allowing public employees to retire with full pensions at age 55” and ending employee pension contributions after 10 years on the job — reforms that “could exceed $100 billion.” Lawmakers rely on “backing from public employee unions” and “haven’t objected as the state headcount has surged.” They plainly don’t care about “getting New Yorkers a better return on what they pay in state taxes.”

Energy beat: Europe’s ‘Intermittency Trap’

Despite Norway’s “abundant hydrocarbons and enough hydropower for 95% of domestic use,” reports Pieter Garicano at Silicon Continent, energy prices there “rocketed” last week. Why? Spiking demand from elsewhere in Europe and its agreement to share its electricity. The continent had faced a “dunkelflaute” (no sun or wind), so its dependence on renewable power meant higher prices. Such surges and juice-rationing periods will become “more pronounced” as “intermittent” wind- and solar-power sources replace “conventional baseload power.” Nor will planned “solutions” — better transmission, battery storage, nuclear and hydrogen sources — suffice any time soon. “Is Europe resigning itself to rationing and shocks and high energy prices? The surprise after the dunkelflaute” suggests “that perhaps not as much thought” went into avoiding the “intermittency trap” as one would’ve hoped.

— Compiled by The Post Editorial Board