J.E. DYER: When The Obama Administration Became The Deep State.

In early January 2017, then-President Barack Obama, SHMOTUS Joe Biden, and a small sub-group of the national security team began their transition to what’s commonly called the “Deep State.” Based on the footprints they left behind we can tell that they took time from their real jobs of running the country, this proto-deep state planned, coordinated, and leaked a timed media burst of articles about Trump and Russia. Each of the stories was leaked to different outlets. Each story was published between the 10th and 12th of January. This was the turning point when the Obama Administration became the deep state.

At NRO on Tuesday, Andrew McCarthy came to an important conclusion about the Trump-Russia investigation. It has been increasingly clear that the investigation – to the extent we may call it that – started quite a while before 31 July 2016, the date long given for its formal launch. McCarthy suggests it began in the early spring, probably around the end of March.

Read the whole thing.

IT SHOULDN’T HAVE TAKEN A CENTURY FOR A PRESIDENT TO DO THIS, BUT GOOD FOR HIM. ALSO, THE MANN ACT IS UNCONSTITUTIONAL. Jack Johnson, Heavyweight Boxing Champion, Pardoned by Trump.

President Trump on Thursday pardoned Jack Johnson, the first black heavyweight champion, who was convicted in 1913 of transporting a white woman across state lines.

Mr. Trump signed the pardon for Johnson during an Oval Office ceremony, sitting at the Resolute Desk and flanked by Sylvester Stallone, Lennox Lewis and other fighters.

The president called Johnson “a truly great fighter, had a tough life,” but served 10 months in federal prison “for what many view as a racially-motivated injustice.” Mr. Trump said the conviction took place during a “period of tremendous racial tension in the United States.”

Decades after Johnson was convicted under the Mann Act, his case drew significant attention as a gross miscarriage of justice and a symbol of the depths of racism in the American justice system. . . .

The president noted that bipartisan requests for the pardon for Johnson had been made for years, but that despite that, no previous president had been willing to sign one. He noted — with a glancing reference to former President Barack Obama — that the last resolution in Congress calling for the pardon was in 2015.

Indeed.

BLOOD: Low Supply of Platelets Raising Concerns Heading into Memorial Day Weekend.

THE “INTERNET OF THINGS” ISN’T LOOKING PROMISING: Hackers infect 500,000 consumer routers all over the world with malware.

JOE PAPPALARDO: The Showdown Between the F-35 and the Russian Weapons Built to Stop It Is Finally Here.

SHOT: No amount of alcohol, sausage or bacon is safe according to cancer experts.

CHASER: Always listen to the experts. They’ll tell you what can’t be done and why. Then do it.

REARMAMENT: House rejects limit on new nuclear warhead.

The rejected amendment would have fenced half the 2019 funding for low-yield nuclear warhead development in lieu of an assessment of its impact on strategic stability and options to reduce the risk of miscalculation. Reps. Jim Garamendi, D-Calif., and Earl Blumenauer, D-Ore., sponsored it.

The amendment was defeated 188-226 largely along party lines, with seven Democrats voting “no” with Republicans and five Republicans voting “yes” with Democrats.

The Pentagon’s Nuclear Posture Review, released in February, called for the creation of two new nuclear designs — a low-yield variant of the W76 nuclear warhead on Trident II missiles aboard America’s nuclear submarines, as well as a potential new sea-launched nuclear cruise missile.

Tactical nukes are a smart choice for added deterrence.

FRIENDS DON’T LET FRIENDS SKIP LEG DAY: Leg exercise is critical to brain and nervous system health.

MICHAEL CAPUTO: A 2nd Possible Mole Approached Me in May of 2016 and Mueller Was Very Interested in Hearing About That. “Somebody who I believe was organized by the investigators.”

RIP: Philip Roth’s pitiless take on the Sexual Revolution.

TAXPROF: IRS Warns Taxpayers That Regs Will Prevent States From Circumventing $10k S&L Tax Cap With ‘Charitable’ Contributions.

YOUR GONNA NEED A BIGGER BLOG: What’s wrong with the Democratic Party? Just look at California.

And in a few years, we may look back on the current insanity as a golden age for the once-Golden State: California Lurches Left As Jerry Brown Heads Into the Sunset. For all his obvious flaws, Brown governed the state like an adult. What comes next is likely to be worse.

Après Monsieur Jerry, le déluge.

THEY HIDE LOTS OF STUFF FROM CONGRESS, APPARENTLY: Andrew McCabe Spent $70,000 On A Table. The FBI Hid It From Congress.

#GODTOO? Morgan Freeman accused of inappropriate behavior by eight women.

On the Weinstein-Polanski scale of Hollywood depravity, what the article at The Hill describes Freeman of doing is pretty small beans (mostly being a jerk on film sets), but as Richard Fernandez has said, the torpedoes the left fired to sink Trump keep circling back on them.

FLASHBACK: Watch accused sexual harasser Morgan Freeman narrate a campaign video for Hillary Clinton.

As David French recently wrote, “The steady drumbeat of sexual scandal is eroding the Left’s moral authority.”

(Via SDA.)

THIS IS HOW THE MOVIE STARTS, RIGHT? 2 Ebola patients escape from treatment in Congo, raising fears virus could spread.

ACCESS: Cohen Got $400,000 From Ukraine To Broker Trump Meeting, Says BBC.

CHANGE: Adam Ford Sells ‘Babylon Bee,’ Takes on the Facebook-Google Mafia’s ‘Duopoly on Information.’

TEXAS A.G. KEN PAXTON: To stop school shootings, use Israel’s approach to fighting terror: After Santa Fe and Parkland, gun control is a waste of time. Gun control is only a “waste of time” if your goal is saving lives. If your goal is keeping the flyover people in their place, then it’s still a prime policy.

WELL, GOOD: China Disinvited from Participating in 2018 RIMPAC Exercise.

Citing actions in the South China Sea that run counter to international norms and a pursuit of free and open seas, Department of Defense spokesman Marine Lt. Col. Christopher Logan said the People’s Liberation Army Navy (PLAN) would not be participating in the exercise despite its participation in submarine safety and other non-warfighting components of the exercise in previous years.

“The United States is committed to a free and open Indo-Pacific. China’s continued militarization of disputed features in the South China Sea only serve to raise tensions and destabilize the region. As an initial response to China’s continued militarization of the South China Sea we have disinvited the PLA Navy from the 2018 Rim of the Pacific (RIMPAC) Exercise. China’s behavior is inconsistent with the principles and purposes of the RIMPAC exercise,” Logan said.

“We have strong evidence that China has deployed anti-ship missiles, surface-to-air missile (SAM) systems, and electronic jammers to contested features in the Spratly Islands region of the South China Sea. China’s landing of bomber aircraft at Woody Island has also raised tensions,” he continued.

“We believe these recent deployments and the continued militarization of these features is a violation of the promise that President Xi made to the United States and the World not to militarize the Spratly Islands.”

There’s no reason to share naval experience and knowhow with China while they refuse to recognize international law and norms concerning freedom of the seas.

EXACTLY RIGHT: Hold administrators accountable for campus free speech crisis, First Amendment advocates tell Congress.

College administrators must accept blame for the severe restrictions on free speech seen on campuses and should be held accountable by Congress so First Amendment rights in higher education can be protected, several pro-free speech panelists told Congress on Tuesday.

“Make them fess up,” Princeton University Professor Robert George told members of the subcommittees on healthcare, benefits and administrative rules and intergovernmental affairs during a joint hearing on “Challenges to the freedom of speech on college campuses.”

George referred to college presidents who seem to pretend as if there’s no free speech crisis on campuses. “Give them a grilling like I’ve seen here,” George said, referring to the sometimes heated hearing that aimed to tackle what many agree is a huge problem on college campuses today.

Professor Bret Weinstein, who left his biology post at Evergreen State College after a mob of angry students aggressively confronted him for refusing to participate in an anti-white “Day of Absence” last year — eventually forcing him to move his class to a park — told lawmakers that the school’s president, George Bridges, sided with the militant students and gave into all their demands instead of telling them what they were doing was wrong.

Weinstein, who was referred to as the “professor in-exile” during the hearing, seemed to argue that leadership can play a strong role in what is allowed to transpire on campus.

Alliance Defending Freedom Senior Counsel Tyson Langhofer told the representatives that if campus administrators would simply enforce free speech policies on the books and tell rowdy students, “Look, you can’t block access to this door,” things would start to improve.

I think they should be held personally liable for failing to protect students’ rights.

UNEXPECTED HEADLINES: California lawmakers vote to expand gun restraining orders — but ACLU says bill goes too far.

HEH: Since Clapper was on “The View,” he should have said “Yeah, it was spying, but it wasn’t spying spying.”

NOTE THE HIGHLY DIPLOMATIC LANGUAGE IN THE LETTER, AND NO, I’M NOT KIDDING: Trump Responds To Kim Threats By Cancelling Singapore Meeting.

HIGHER EDUCATION BUBBLE UPDATE, HOSTILE EDUCATIONAL ENVIRONMENT EDITION: College course explores ‘feminist critique of masculinity.’