COLLUSION: China’s Incestuous Relationship with the WHO Might Be Worse Than We Originally Thought. “If what the intelligence agencies around the world believe is in fact true, China prevented the world from having four to six weeks to prepare for the spread of the virus. Leaders in each country could have done more to protect their citizens, and there would have been a greater likelihood the virus would be contained to China, if not Wuhan. China lied. The WHO took part in that, and now both need to be held accountable.”
Archive for 2020
May 10, 2020
JUST A REMINDER: I get paid based on ad revenue now, so if you wouldn’t mind whitelisting InstaPundit if you run an ad blocker that would be great. Or some people hit the PayPal donation button, which is also great. (Bumped).
AT AMAZON, deals in Movies & TV.
WELL, DARN: Iran Sinks Its Own Battleship. Okay, it’s actually a frigate. Iran doesn’t have any battleships.
HEY JOURNALISTS: WANT PEOPLE TO STOP THINKING OF YOU AS GARBAGE? STOP BEING GARBAGE.
OPEN THREAD: Let’s grab some takeout from Dean and Deluca, a hearty gulping wine.
DEFINITELY THE FORMER, NOT SURE ABOUT THE LATTER: Yes, Both Chinatown and The Two Jakes Are Screen Classics.
WHY ARE LEFTIST-DOMINATED INDUSTRIES SUCH CESSPITS OF ABUSE? Former NBC Staffer Emily Miller Says She Was Sexually Harassed at the Network: ‘I Knew That I Had to Leave.’
Earlier: NBC News probed over alleged sexual assaults as chairman ousted. “More than a dozen women have been interviewed by officials from a department dubbed ‘The Weinstein Unit’ for its work nailing movie mogul Harvey Weinstein for rape, sources told the site.”
IT DOESN’T SEEM LIKE YOU’D NEED A VERY BIG TELESCOPE TO SPOT THE SUN. IT’S PRETTY OBVIOUS . . . Inside the world’s largest sun-spotting telescope. I’ll be here all week. Try the veal!
AMERICA’S NEWSPAPER OF RECORD:
ROGER KIMBALL: Flynn Revelations May Lead to Disillusionment With Deep State, Not Retribution.
You would have to go far down the Democratic food chain—to a Peter Strzok or a Lisa Page—before you get to someone dispensable enough to be thrown under the bus.
Which is why retribution is a fond hope. The best we can hope for is a general disillusionment and erosion of authority in the public’s acquiescence to rule by the Deep State. That would undoubtedly be a victory, the more thoroughgoing the disillusionment, the better. Doubtless, retribution, in the form of indictments, would be more satisfying. But politics, as Bismarck observed, is the art of the possible.
Read the whole thing.
ATTORNEY GENERAL BARR’S OFFICE SHREDS NBC’S CHUCK TODD FOR ‘DECEPTIVE EDITING’ OF BARR’S COMMENTS:
Todd focused in on the following exchange between Barr and [CBS News investigative reporter Catherine Herridge]:
HERRIDGE: In closing, this was a big decision in the Flynn case, to say the least. When history looks back on this decision, how do you think it will be written? What will it say about your decision making?
BARR: Well, history is written by the winner. So it largely depends on who’s writing the history. But I think a fair history would say that it was a good decision because it upheld the rule of law. It helped, it upheld the standards of the Department of Justice, and it undid what was an injustice.
Todd only played the first two sentences of Barr’s comments where Barr said, “Well, history is written by the winner. So it largely depends on who’s writing the history.”
Given that NBC’s ransom note editing technique is now putting Barr’s exact quote into wider circulation, it’s a reminder of Robert Conquest’s Third Law of Politics: “The simplest way to explain the behavior of any bureaucratic organization is to assume that it is controlled by a cabal of its enemies.”
DISPATCHES FROM THE MANCHURIAN MEDIA: Flashback: Fearing Chinese Censors, Paramount Changed World War Z in 2013.
When executives at Paramount viewed the latest cut of the $175 million Brad Pitt zombie film “World War Z,” they were not concerned by the violence or its reengineered ending. They were worried about a minor plot point that involved a sensitive topic: China.
In the offending scene, characters debate the geographic origin of an outbreak that caused a zombie apocalypse and point to China, a Paramount executive told TheWrap.
Normally the detail would not have merited discussion at the top echelons of the studio. But given the fast-rising prominence of the Chinese market, state censorship and the quotas for U.S. releases, the studio advised the movie producers to drop the reference to China and cite a different country as a possible source of the pandemic, an executive with knowledge of the film told TheWrap.
The change was made in recent days in the hopes of landing a deal for one of Paramount’s biggest summer movies to play in China, the world’s fastest-growing film market.
“It’s not a huge plot point,” an individual with knowledge of the studio’s plans told TheWrap. “But it’s safe to say [they’re] going to want a release there.”
As with the NBA kowtowing to China, keep the above in mind whenever Hollywood pretends it “speaks truth to power.” Also, note that Paramount is owned by ViacomCBS:
Earlier: Biden Sold Out America To China While Working For Hollywood.
UPDATE: And speaking of the “news” division of ViacomCBS:
(Updated and bumped.)
ANDREW CUOMO: BLOOD ON HIS HANDS. New York Gov. Andrew Cuomo’s Nursing Home Scandal Grows.
UPDATE: Yep.
JIM MEIGS: Post-pandemic, four-year colleges need to change — or face extinction.
Even before the pandemic, many were questioning whether the four-year college degree is a good deal. Tuition has more than doubled in the past 30 years; Americans now hold a staggering $1.5 trillion in student-loan debt. Economists note that, while a diploma leads to higher earnings for most graduates, many remain “underemployed” even years after graduation. And 40 percent of those who start college never finish.
The cultural respect traditionally paid to elite schools has diminished as well. Outrage erupted when news broke that Harvard and other lavishly funded schools had accepted millions in federal pandemic relief money. (Harvard eventually agreed to return the funds.)
Many current students are angered that their schools refused to offer partial tuition rebates after moving classes online. Some have filed lawsuits.
Meanwhile, no one knows what the coming school year will look like. Some schools might not reopen campuses until late fall or winter. Others could offer a mix of online and classroom instruction. Large lecture classes are probably on hold, as are most sporting events.
Students and families are balking at paying full tuition for such cobbled-together programs. At the University of Chicago, students have organized a “tuition strike,” demanding 50 percent cuts.
According to one survey, 10 percent of previously college-bound high-school seniors are now planning to delay. Some say they no longer plan to attend college at all. Meanwhile, a quarter of current college students say they might not return to their schools in the fall.
A survey of parents showed that roughly half want their children to attend less-expensive schools closer to home.
Analysts estimate fall enrollment could drop as much as 20 percent, adding up to a $45 billion revenue loss. The ratings agency Moody’s recently revised its outlook for higher education from “stable” to “negative.”
All is proceeding as I have foreseen, only faster all of a sudden.
EMBRACE THE HEALING POWER OF “AND:” Are Endless Lockdowns the Result of Malice or Stupidity?
IT WAS MEANT TO BE, AND SOLD AS, A SHORT-TERM STOPGAP, NOT A WAY OF LIFE: 10 Reasons To End The Lockdown Now.
QUESTION ASKED AND ANSWERED:
● Shot: Why Have Late-Night TV Hosts Gone Silent on Tara Reade?
—The Daily Beast, today.
● Chaser:
This is also my theory about the big entertainment awards shows like the Oscars and the Emmys. If the big, broad, general audience you used to have is gone, and deep down you think it’s never coming back, then why not make a harder bid for the loyalty of the smaller audience you’ve got left? In a time when the entertainment industry is (or thinks it is) a one-party state with no dissenters, you had better echo that politics back to your base.
What were once cultural institutions with a broad, bipartisan audience are becoming niche players with a narrow fan base. They no longer view partisan politics as a dangerous move that will shrink their audience. Instead, they’re using partisan politics as a lure to secure the loyalty of their audience, or what is left of it. Not that it’s going to work over the long term, because people who want to have their biases confirmed will just watch the five-minute YouTube clip Chris Cillizza links to the next day.
—Why Late Night Hosts Like Jimmy Kimmel Are Suddenly So Political, Robert Tracinski, the Federalist, October 5, 2017.
To paraphrase Lorne Michaels’ tap dance for the reason NBC’s Saturday Night Live maintained radio silence on Harvey Weinstein in the fall of 2017, I’m sure the entertainment division of the DNC-MSM view Biden and Tara Reade as strictly “a Dover thing.”
Since so many low-information voters get their “news” second-hand from the late night shows and Viacom’s “Weekend Update” clone the Daily Show, the usual rules of journalism also apply here:
SEVEN DAYS IN MAY: Joe Biden’s Awful No Good Very Bad Week at Legal Insurrection.
Meanwhile, outside the Blogosphere: Bad Week For Russia Hoax So Liberals Are Back On The Trump Is Racist Lie.
THIS TOOK WAY TOO LONG: Andrew Cuomo FINALLY Reverses Order Forcing Nursing Homes To Take COVID Patients, Demands Testing For Care Workers. “Last week, state authorities identified an additional, unreported 1,700 coronavirus deaths that took place in the state’s nursing homes but went uncounted in the state’s official death toll for a variety of reasons.”
GOALPOSTS, MOVED: Illinois governor: Coronavirus restrictions necessary ‘until we’re able to eradicate it.’
That’s absurd — even the Chicago Tribune is slamming him — and the popular revolt against this idiocy will only grow, especially downstate. It will just make it easier to split Illinois into two states.
WHEN #METOO IS SOLD OUT FOR #ORANGEMANBAD: It sure seems like AOC thinks Joe Biden is a sex criminal and plans to vote for him anyway.
