After Venezuela, is Cuba next, Don Lemon’s despicable revival and other commentary

Foreign desk: After Caracas, Is Havana Next?

Having succeeded in Latin America by capturing Venezuela’s Nicolás Maduro, President Trump isn’t “content to sit back when more is on the table,” suggests The American Conservative’s Joseph Addington; he’s now “aiming at Havana.”

Trump ordered new tariffs on any country that “directly or indirectly sells or otherwise provides any oil” to Cuba, which needs energy imports “to stay afloat.”

Mexico “ended its provision of oil to the island this week,” and Cuba’s “prospects” look “grim.”

But “regime change in Cuba” will require “more aggressive action than simply cutting off the country’s oil.”

With the Maduro raid serving as a “proof of concept” for a “new model” of “low-risk, low-commitment regime-change operations,” it would not be surprising if something similar is planned for Havana.

Culture critic: Don Lemon’s Despicable Revival

“When Don Lemon and a group of agitators stormed a church in Minneapolis, they so terrorized those inside that a woman broke her arm trying to flee, and children were seen quietly crying,” fumes Sasha Stone on Substack.

“To Don Lemon, this was journalism.” To a grand jury, “he broke the law.”

Yet getting arrested might be “the best” thing to happen to Lemon, whose “YouTube channel was languishing in obscurity.”

Now he, like Jimmy Kimmel, is suddenly a “free speech martyr.” Lemon’s “ego was already bigger than Texas” before he “made kids cry” in a church.

In truth, he and Kimmel were actually “two-bit has-beens.” Yet “all they had to do was something so terrible that they crossed a line,” and puff: They get to “pretend they’re heroes.”

Educator: Make Schools Rigorous Again

“Like the American two-party political system, American education today has two educational models,” explains Auguste Meyrat at The Federalist.

One “is the Progressive style of education rooted in the ideas of John Dewey and his disciples” that’s devoted to leftist ideology eschewing “traditional academic disciplines and fields of study.”

The other “is a growing network of schools that have developed a classical pedagogy devoted to conserving what is best of the Western tradition.”

In that vein, the Classical Baccalaureate program was created to restore “rigor, coherence, and formation to secondary education.”

If the CB “lives up to its promises and proves to be popular, it will finally reach its potential as a viable alternative to AP and IB” — and education reformers “should take heart.”

From the right: How To Save the Republic

Democrats “have convinced themselves” that “a generational struggle against fascism in the United States” is taking place, observes the Washington Examiner, but the “propaganda echo chamber” their elected leaders live in means they are “frequently duped by obvious, outright fakery.”

The stories of Renee Good, Liam Conejo Ramos and Alex Pretti have been amplified and hyped by the “pervasive Democratic media bubble” and presented as “brave” acts of “standing up to fascism,” though in reality “law enforcement officers have every right to arrest and detain people who obstruct them in their duties,” because “enforcing laws is the essence of ordered liberty.”

“Democrats must abandon inflammatory rhetoric, respect federal authority, and engage in honest debate to preserve the republic they claim to defend.”

Legal beat: Lowering NY’s Auto Insurance Costs

“Rampant fraud and runaway litigation are driving up auto insurance premiums across New York, and billboard attorneys are cashing in,” roars Tom Stebbins at Empire Report.

“Charging hefty fees, wealthy lawyers pad their wallets as families struggle to keep up.” New York’s no-fault insurance system has become “a magnet for abuse, rewarding criminals and drunk drivers for creating chaos.”

Though “meant to reduce litigation and court system congestion,” it instead “fuels fraud,” with “no-fault claims accounting for approximately 75%” of all Department of Financial Services fraud reports.

Fortunately, “Gov. Hochul is championing a comprehensive strategy to crack down,” “bring New York’s civil justice system in line with other states” and “provide meaningful cost savings for families.”

Lawmakers “need to back” this “common-sense” reform.

— Compiled by The Post Editorial Board