Lame move from a lame duck, grim wages of Joe’s weakness and other commentary

Libertarian: UK Crackdown on . . . Silent Prayer

It sounds “Orwellian — but a handful of people have been arrested or charged” in Britain, “simply for praying silently near abortion clinics,” marvels Reason Magazine’s Emma Camp.

Adam Smith-Connor this month “was convicted of criminal charges” thanks to the “2014 Anti-Social Behaviour, Crime and Policing Act,” under which “local authorities can obtain special status for some public places,” where they can “ban a huge range of conduct,” including silent prayers.

In sentencing Smith-Connor, “the court reasoned that his prayer amounted to ‘disapproval of abortion’ ” because “his head was seen slightly bowed and his hands were clasped.” And he’s “far from the first” in Britain to face jail for such prayer.

Hawk: Lame Move From a Lame Duck

“As a one-term president, Joe Biden appears eager” to do unwise things, such as apparently pushing Britain to cede the Chagos Islands to Mauritius, grumbles John Bolton at The Wall Street Journal.

The Chagos archipelago “houses a critical U.S.-U.K. military base” in the Indian Ocean, and though the base will remain under British control, Mauritius is “increasingly China-friendly.”

If Parliament approves the transfer, China will be able to spy on the base and conduct military operations.

“There’s no compelling logic” to cede the islands, except that Labour and former leader Jeremy Corbyn have long sought it; Chagossians might’ve even preferred to become a US commonwealth.

Yet Biden caved to the Corbynites. “Let’s hope there aren’t any other foreign-policy surprises” before Biden steps down.

Foreign desk: Grim Wages of Joe’s Weakness

“The most salient national security aspect of Bob Woodward’s new book ‘War’ is his revelation that Russian President Vladimir Putin was likely emboldened to invade Ukraine in February 2022 after President Joe Biden’s chaotic withdrawal from Afghanistan,” argue Mark Toth & Jonathan Sweet at The Hill.

Indeed: “The ‘permissive environment’ established by Biden and his national security team was taken as a greenlight by the Kremlin.”

The next beneficiary of Biden’s weakness “will likely be Iran’s nuclear weapons program.” While “Biden has repeatedly pledged that Khamenei will not obtain nuclear weapons on his watch,” clearly “Iran is on the cusp of nuclear breakout.”

Biden “is emboldening Putin and his Axis of Evil allies to continue escalating their war against Western liberal democracies.”

And our “allies — particularly Ukraine and Israel — are paying with their lives.”

Albany watch: Cuomo’s Misinfo Campaign

Regarding his administration’s COVID nursing-home scandal, ex-Gov. Andrew Cuomo and his team repeatedly misstated “how its policies had worked, understating death counts, falsifying official reports and stonewalling data requests from the Legislature and the public,” fumes the Empire Center’s Bill Hammond.

“That deceptive pattern continued with Cuomo’s testimony” to a House subcommittee, as he and ex-aides repeated “their earlier false or misleading claims.”

They claimed that the “controversial March 25, 2020, directive sending infected patients into nursing homes had followed guidance from federal health officials,” though it omitted the feds’ “special precautions” to ensure safety. He also testified he had no involvement in a July 2020 Health Department report “which minimized the impact of the March 25 directive.”

False: Media have shared “documents showing his intimate involvement in writing and editing the Health Department report.”

Conservative: Dems Desperate as Elex Nears

“Liberals have found themselves in panic mode. It seems the agreed-upon tactic for the closing days of the Harris campaign is — to quote former first lady Michelle Obama — to ‘go low,’ ” snarks David N. Bossie at the Washington Times.

Their “closing arguments have been reduced to feeble criticism of Mr. Trump for not doing another debate, whining about why he isn’t doing an interview on the biased ‘60 Minutes’ and double-dog-daring him to release his medical records like some schoolyard game.”

Problem is, “Americans are suffering from the policies she has implemented since January 2021. It’s clear that voters want a change, and Ms. Harris is the candidate of the broken status quo.”