#We cannot look away from Ukraine and other commentary

From the right: Bitter Lessons of the War

“It’s vital that the world not look away” from “the indifferent brutality of Vladimir Putin’s assault on Ukraine,” argues The Wall Street Journal’s editors, since “it’s a warning of what will become more common as the multi-decade Pax Americana recedes.” As “Ukraine’s forces are putting up brave resistance despite being overwhelmed in firepower,” both “Europe and the U.S. should be ashamed for not doing more to help Ukrainians defend themselves.” Watch this “war of imperial conquest by a stronger nation subjugating the weak. Westerners who have lived in peaceful comfort for decades should absorb the awful lesson.”

Elex watch: Plunging Income Will Sting Dems

“The incumbent president’s party almost always struggles” during midterm elections, but President Biden may face a “challenge no president has faced in midterms for nearly 50 years: declining incomes due to high inflation,” warns Andrew Prokop at Vox. Of the 18 midterms from 1950 to 2018, only three “featured negative real income growth,” and all “went badly for the president’s party, with two being the worst” in modern times. And by the “latest economic metrics” Democrats’ prospects don’t “look good.” Per the Federal Reserve Bank of Dallas, real wage growth turned negative in 2021 because of inflation. As voters blame Biden for a bad economy, the White House seeks to “brainstorm a new economic message — but there may be no substitute for improving workers’ real wages.”

Energy desk: Joe’s Assist to Vlad

“The Ukraine debacle showcases Joe Biden’s many failures,” declares Roger Kimball at Spectator World. Remember “the good old days when America was energy independent, nay, when it was” a net exporter? That was “as recent as 2020.” Then Biden, on entering office, “shut down the Keystone Pipeline” and discouraged domestic production — while green-lighting Russia’s Nord Stream 2. The result: In 2020, “natural gas was $4.36 per 1,000 cubic feet.” Last year, “prices more than doubled, averaging $9 per 1,000 cubic feet.” It not only “costs more to heat your house this winter.” You can also thank Biden for “helping to fund Russia’s military adventurism.”

Culture critic: Erasing J.K. Rowling

The New York Times, gripes Simon Evans at Spiked, “has endorsed the notion that J.K. Rowling’s” trans heresy “makes her very existence regrettable.” The paper’s latest ad “features a subscriber . . . listing a few of her favorite things,” showing her “in a field, wearing a sort of wizard’s cape and flourishing a wand, ‘Imagining Harry Potter Without its Creator.’” How about “instead of indulging in psychopathic abstract decapitations of the mind of J.K. Rowling from the body of her work,” the Times and its ilk try “gratitude” for “the combination of qualities — courage to speak her truth, surely among them — that allowed J.K. Rowling and no one else to give the world Harry Potter.” And “if that really doesn’t work,” just “read another f - - king book.”

Conservative: Loan Pause Serves Elite

“The left claims that President Biden’s student loan moratorium is about helping the ‘working class.’ But the moratorium is a special favor for affluent elites,” thunders Isabelle Morales at The Washington Times. Biden’s extension of the repayment moratorium until May “is incredibly unfair to Americans” who don’t have college debt or paid off their loans. And while “the left claims extending the moratorium will help low-income Americans, it will actually help wealthy individuals. About “75% of student loan repayments come from the top 40% of earners.” Others will pay: With the moratorium costing “more than $100 billion” as of January, it’s also adding to the government’s “historic, out-of-control spending.” — Compiled by The Post Editorial Board