WELL, THAT’S COMFORTING: Work Stops at C.D.C.’s Top Deadly Germ Lab Over Air Hose Safety. “The problem came to light when the C.D.C. ordered new hoses to replace the original ones, which had been installed when the laboratory opened in 2005. The manufacturer — the same one that had provided the original hoses — informed the C.D.C. that its products were not meant for breathing. Dr. Monroe declined to name the company. Why the unsuitability of the hoses was not recognized in 2005 is not clear.”

Sure, it’s not a big deal, and it could just be a one-off. But look at the list of related articles:

Perhaps there’s a larger problem here.

ANDREW KLAVAN ON CHOOSING SIDES: Donald Trump vs. the Deep State.

THE “DAY WITHOUT IMMIGRANTS” BECAME A TEACHABLE MOMENT: “This is reality. If you don’t show up to work you can get fired. Actions have consequences. Consider this a ‘teachable moment’…a day without immigrants is not a day without consequences.”

Read the whole thing.

WELL, THIS IS THE 21ST CENTURY, YOU KNOW: Magnetic Control Could Help Robots Navigate Inside Your Body.

CAN HE PRESCRIBE ME TALLER AND WITH FEWER GRAY HAIRS? Hawaii Dem Argues Doctors Should be Able to Prescribe Housing to Cure Homelessness.

CHANGE: Sweeping New Guidelines from DHS to Ease Deportation of Illegals.

SCENES FROM THE AMERICA THAT WORKS: Watch: SpaceX successfully launches, lands Falcon 9 rocket.

I’D BE QUITE HAPPY WITH THAT MYSELF: Report: Senior White House Officials Favor John Bolton for National Security Adviser.

THOUGHTS ON THE DECLINE OF SPORTSWRITING:

In the age of liberal sportswriting, the writers are now far more liberal than the readers. “Absolutely I think we’re to the left of most sports fans,” said Craig Calcaterra, who writes for HardballTalk. “It’s folly for any of us to think we’re speaking for the common fan.”

Of course, labels like “liberal” and “conservative” don’t translate perfectly to sports. Do you have to be liberal to call Roger Goodell a tool? So maybe it’s better to put it like this: There was a time when filling your column with liberal ideas on race, class, gender, and labor policy got you dubbed a “sociologist.” These days, such views are more likely to get you a job.

An audience? Not so much.

STOCKHOLM SYNDROME: John McCain’s “dictator” talk ignores reality and his own past with the media.

If McCain pushed back against the DNC-MSM in 2008 the way Trump has, we’d be talking about how successful his two terms as president had been right now.

RICHARD FERNANDEZ ON TODAY’S FACTIONALISM: “The danger of America dividing in the face of an opportunistic enemy should be obvious to the combatants. But the factions of American politics may be too enraged to stop out of fear of a common threat. . . . If Trump is overthrown by the Deep State in a year, he’s unlikely to be the last. If neither faction will suffer itself to be governed by the other, whoever succeeds Trump can expect his term to be short. America could have its own period of the 26 presidents. That will be good news for the Barbarians, waiting at the edge of the Baltics, in the South China Sea, and on Europe’s borders, ready to move in.”

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DON SURBER: Historians Sense Obama Failed.

Only 12th best?

Gee, you would think in light of the last eight years of hosannas from the press, Barack Obama would rank with Washington and Lincoln among America’s academics. But nope, he was only 12th. . . .

The rankings by category show a distinctly affirmative action grading curve.

For example, he ranks third in “Pursued Equal Justice For All,” ahead of Grant (reconstruction and the Civil Rights Act of 1875), Coolidge (gave Indians citizenship), Eisenhower (sent the 101st to enforce school desegregation and the Civil Rights Act of 1957), and Truman (desegregated the military). Frankly, I can find nothing in Obama’s portfolio that speaks to equal justice for all. The court legalized gay marriage without him. A gentleman’s C puts him at 22.

Eighth in economic management? He added $9 trillion to the national debt and we never recovered from the recession he inherited. Bottom 10 in that category.

Twenty-fourth in international relations? He bombed countries without provocation, armed the Islamic State, and let Iran develop nuclear weapons. Bottom 10 in that category.

His domestic policy consisted of Obamacare, which elected a Republican House in 2010, a Republican Senate in 2014, and a Republican president in 2016.

Obama leaves the White House having achieved nothing positive on the economic front, nothing positive on the international front, and nothing positive on the domestic front.

He’s the best black president, though, and given the way he poisoned the racial well, he’s likely to hold that status for quite a while.

WHY WOULD ANY MAN GO THERE? Male student sues Allegheny College after ‘false accusation’ of sexual assault.

The student, identified only as John Doe in court documents, alleges that he attempted to present evidence that made it clear his accuser was only angry because they were no longer speaking and wanted him expelled out of spite. He says this evidence and witness testimony was ignored by Allegheny.

The incident that led to John’s accusation occurred in late September 2014. John and some of his track teammates had gathered to celebrate their recent time trials. John’s accuser, listed in court documents as Jane Doe, attended the celebration. John alleges that Jane brought a bottle of tequila with her to the party but says she did not consume any alcoholic beverages and was sober.

Eventually, John and Jane went back to John’s dorm room. The two slept together in John’s bed, as they had done previously. On this night, the two engaged in sexual activity. Twice during the evening, Jane left John’s room to use the bathroom, passing the resident assistant (RA) each time. Jane, according to John, made no indication that she did not want to engage in sexual activity or was held against her will, as she could have left at any time and could have sought the help of the RA.

Jane slept in John’s bed that night and returned the following night to sleep in his dorm room as well. For the next few weeks, Jane texted John multiple times to talk about their relationship. John alleges in his lawsuit that he “largely ignored Jane Doe’s text messages and her efforts to communicate with him.”

Two months later, Jane would accuse John of sexual assault.

Cost of attending Allegheny college: $58,920 per year.

GOOD LUCK WITH THAT: Poll: Americans want Democrats to work with Trump.

A strong majority of Americans say Democrats should look to cooperate with President Trump to strike deals, according to the inaugural Harvard-Harris poll provided exclusively by The Hill.

The survey found that 73 percent of voters want to see Democrats work with the president, against only 27 percent who said Democrats should resist Trump’s every move.

The findings are significant as Democratic leaders in Congress are under growing pressure by their liberal base to obstruct the president’s agenda. The poll shows the party is divided on how to deal with Trump: 52 percent of Democrats polled say they should cooperate with him on areas of agreement and 48 percent saying they shouldn’t.

Those figures are nearly identical when the question is flipped – 68 percent of those polled say that Trump should be willing to compromise and find ways to work with Democrats in Congress. Thirty-two percent said Trump shouldn’t bend at all, even if it means finding ways to achieve his agenda without congressional approval.

I think our house is pretty divided, even if our House isn’t.

GEERT WILDERS VOWS TO DE-ISLAMIZE THE NETHERLANDS.

Wilders – who has lived in hiding since an Islamist murdered Dutch filmmaker Theo van Gogh in 2004 – pledges to ban Muslim immigration, close all mosques and take the Netherlands out of the European Union.

Many of his supporters at the Spijkenisse market, however, said they cared more about his social welfare policies.

“The most important thing for me is bringing the pension age back down to 65,” said Wil Fens, 59, a crane operator at the port.

Wilders hopes a global upsurge in anti-establishment feeling that has already helped to propel Donald Trump to the U.S. presidency and to persuade Britons to vote to quit the European Union will propel him to power in the March 15 parliamentary election.

A win for Wilders would boost French far-right leader Marine Le Pen and the Alternative for Germany party, both hoping to transform European politics in elections this year.

“Despite all the hate and fear-mongering of the elite both in Britain and Brussels, people took their fate in their own hands,” he said. “I think that will happen in Holland, in France, Austria and in Germany.”

Wilders’ party leads in opinion polls with 17 percent, a whisker ahead of the pro-business Liberals of Prime Minister Mark Rutte, who has closed the gap by matching some of Wilders’ anti-immigration rhetoric and received a boost from a surging economy.

Hmm. Well, stay tuned.

HIGHER EDUCATION BUBBLE UPDATE, LEGAL EDUCATION EDITION: Charlotte Law School Is Delinquent On Its $148k Property Tax Bill, Says Check Is In The Mail.

EIGHT YEARS AGO ON INSTAPUNDIT:

FREE SPEECH IN THE AGE OF OBAMA: “An Oklahoma City police officer wrongly pulled over a man last week and confiscated an anti-President Barack Obama sign the man had on his vehicle.” Plus this: “When I was on my way there, the Secret Service called me and said they weren’t going to ransack my house or anything … they just wanted to (walk through the house) and make sure I wasn’t a part of any hate groups.” Since when do government officials search homes to ensure the absence of impure political thoughts?

If something like this had happened with Bush, it would have been proof that fascism was descending had descended upon America.

Likewise, Trump.

TRUMP’S FLORIDA RALLY . . . begins with the First Lady leading the group in The Lord’s Prayer. I can’t think of the last time I’ve heard The Lord’s Prayer at a rally.

Plus: “Excellent political theater. That’s it for now from me.”

MILO YIANNOPOULOS will be CPAC Keynote speaker next week.

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MAYBE HER PLAN IS TO IMPORT SO MANY REFUGEES NO ONE WILL WANT TO INVADE: Germany will take own time to boost defense, Merkel tells Pence.

NICHOLAS EBERSTADT: Our Miserable 21st Century.

On the morning of November 9, 2016, America’s elite—its talking and deciding classes—woke up to a country they did not know. To most privileged and well-educated Americans, especially those living in its bicoastal bastions, the election of Donald Trump had been a thing almost impossible even to imagine. What sort of country would go and elect someone like Trump as president? Certainly not one they were familiar with, or understood anything about.

Whatever else it may or may not have accomplished, the 2016 election was a sort of shock therapy for Americans living within what Charles Murray famously termed “the bubble” (the protective barrier of prosperity and self-selected associations that increasingly shield our best and brightest from contact with the rest of their society). The very fact of Trump’s election served as a truth broadcast about a reality that could no longer be denied: Things out there in America are a whole lot different from what you thought.

Yes, things are very different indeed these days in the “real America” outside the bubble. In fact, things have been going badly wrong in America since the beginning of the 21st century.

It turns out that the year 2000 marks a grim historical milestone of sorts for our nation. For whatever reasons, the Great American Escalator, which had lifted successive generations of Americans to ever higher standards of living and levels of social well-being, broke down around then—and broke down very badly.

The warning lights have been flashing, and the klaxons sounding, for more than a decade and a half. But our pundits and prognosticators and professors and policymakers, ensconced as they generally are deep within the bubble, were for the most part too distant from the distress of the general population to see or hear it. (So much for the vaunted “information era” and “big-data revolution.”) Now that those signals are no longer possible to ignore, it is high time for experts and intellectuals to reacquaint themselves with the country in which they live and to begin the task of describing what has befallen the country in which we have lived since the dawn of the new century.

Or, you know, just keep displaying contempt for the flyover country deplorables.