SLOW JOE: Robert Gates Makes a Damning Case Against Joe Biden as Commander-in-Chief. “He’s been wrong on nearly every foreign policy and national security issue for the past four decades.”
Archive for 2020
April 3, 2020
KRUISER’S MORNING BRIEF: Dirty Hippies Rediscover Plastic Shopping Bags Plus Beer Blog Friday. “Whilst this beer-blogging stuff is going on, I’ve committed to getting outside of my IPA comfort zone. Some of you fine readers have been suggesting beers, and I am trying to track some of them down. My local brewpub that’s delivering to me has quite a selection, but they’re not running at full capacity during the plague. When I order from them I look for something new and sometimes just something that has a clever name, which is how we got to this week’s beer: Belching Beaver Brewery’s ‘Viva La Beaver’ Mexican Chocolate Peanut Butter Stout.”
I tried something similar at Beasts & Brews in Colorado Springs a few weeks ago, and it was surprisingly good.
THE ONGOING SECURITY NIGHTMARE THAT IS THE ZOOM VIDEOCONFERENCING APP: Zoom was secretly mining LinkedIn data and sharing it with some users.
Related: Yesterday, Bobby Beckman of Lifesize software reached out to me yesterday on this issue, and video security generally. Here’s a webinar he just hosted about privacy practices that might be worth your time.
UM, IT’S RATHER LATE FOR THAT: Coronavirus Is ‘Opportunity of the Century’ for China to Build Trust, Economist Says. Um, What?!
CIVIL RIGHTS UPDATE: Massachusetts quietly made gun retailers essential in extended executive order, then reversed exemption.
One of the nice things about supporting the second amendment even when there is no crisis is that you don’t have to buy your ammo at crisis-inflated prices and you’re never shut out of your favorite gunshop by some meddling busybody.
IMPRESSIVE. MOST IMPRESSIVE. Tesla soars on delivery numbers — company delivered 88,400 vehicles in Q1.
QUESTION ASKED: Who the hell is in charge of Orange County?
Locally, at 2:26 p.m. on March 17, we got an Order from the County (this Order and the aftermath all pre-dated the statewide shutdown, but is still instructive as to our leaders). Here’s what they ordered: “Effective immediately…the following will be in effect in Orange County: 1. All public and private gatherings of any number of people, including at places of work…are prohibited.”
Just to make sure you were paying attention, the County closed with a warning: “this Order may be enforced by the Sheriff or chiefs of police.” Serious stuff. Businesses were closed, effective immediately, and the cops could come after you for disobedience.
Where did this strong medicine come from?
This was the valid Order of Orange County’s Health Officer. Who is that and who elected her? No one knew—before March 17 that is, when, suddenly, no one could go to work and each had ample time to Google this doctor who had just unemployed them. Turns out she, ultimately, works for the County Board of Supervisors. They are elected by the People. But their bureaucrat doctor, seemingly without their approval, shut down by fiat all “non-essential” businesses in a county of over 3 million people.
How did we get from “the aim of every political constitution”—from republican government—to here?
Elsewhere in Southern California: Paddleboarder arrested at Malibu Pier for flouting state stay at home order. As Joel Engel tweets, “Genius. He was miles from another soul until confronted face-to-face by the deputies, then who knows how many others at the sheriff’s substation. ‘We had to destroy the village in order to save it.'”
NEW GOLDEN RULE – HE WHO HAS THE ANTIBIOTICS MAKES THE RULES: Jan Jekielek interviews Rosemary Gibson, author of “China Rx: Exposing the Risks of America’s Dependence on China for Medicine” in The Epoch Times’ “American Thought Leaders” interview series. Here’s a sample from an important and much-needed interview:
“We’re so dependent that we can’t even make antibiotics anymore in the United States. That began in the early 2000s, when the United States opened up free trade with China. And the last penicillin plant shut down. The last vitamin C plant shut down.
“And that happened because China undercut other companies on price and kept prices low for a long time. These are illegal trade practices. And that’s how we lost our penicillin capability and the production of generic antibiotics. We’ve got to think about ways that we can bring our manufacturing back home. Not all of it, but some of it, to assure our national health security.”
The promise of globalism was that mutual interdependence would prevent concentrations of power that produce political and economic abuses. Gibson makes clear that China didn’t get the message and neither did American political leaders in either major party.
FOX, MEET HENHOUSE: Pelosi Creates Select Committee Overseeing $2 Trillion Relief Package.
Is it just me, or does this smell like another Schiffy impeachment effort?
SOME CORONAVIRUS PERSPECTIVE:
Found via Kelly Jane Torrance of the New York Post, who tweets, “Much-needed context. (Though, yes, it’s not over yet. Still.)”
IF IT WEREN’T FOR FAKE NEWS, THEY’D HAVE HARDLY ANY NEWS AT ALL: Misleading NYT Map Suggests The South Is Uniquely Dangerous for Coronavirus.
CHANGE: Locavores were resetting the American table. Then came a pandemic. “My warehouse is full, but my markets are disappearing.”
FROM BLAKE SMITH: The Road to Stonberg (The Mercenary Series Book 1).
Gavril of Grimsby is not your ordinary monster-slayer for hire…
Gavril thought defeating a giant was the most interesting thing he’d do all week. But when a merchant caravan needs guards for the treacherous journey over the mountains to Stonberg, he can’t resist signing on, and learns that even peaceful men don’t always have peaceful lives.
*I’m reliably informed this adventure involves oggling pretty girls and killing monsters. Because the reverse would just be wrong. Also it would probably then be one of my books. This one is probably more fun ;) – SAH*
AND THERE’S AN ACCURATE PRODUCT: OPERATION ENDURING CLUSTERF*CK – COVID-19 (PREORDER).
SURE, ENCOURAGE HIS NERD IN THE LIMELIGHT SYNDROME, AND CONVINCE HIM THAT WE WANT HIM TO BE A PHILOSOPHER KING. OR PERHAPS YOU SHOULD STUDY HIS HISTORY. HE HASN’T MADE A CAREER OF BEING CORRECT: Petition to make Dr. Anthony Fauci ‘Sexiest Man Alive’ gaining steam.
AND THIS: Worse than the Disease.
ALSO YOU NEED TO READ THIS: The Severity of the CoVID-19 Epidemic is Not as Bad as You Think, According to the Numbers.
THEY’RE HIDING SOMETHING. LOTS OF THINGS. ALSO LYING: COVID-19 models, COVID needs, and New York.
PS- they hate us.
LOOK AT MY FACE. SEE HOW SHOCKED IT IS? Pelosi Forms Committee to Investigate Trump Handling of Coronavirus Pandemic.
SURE. WHY NOT? THE PERSON WE WANT ONE OF JOE BIDEN’S HEARTBEATS AWAY FROM THE PRESIDENCY IS THE IDIOT WHO TRIED TO PRACTICE MEDICINE WITHOUT A LICENSE AND FORBID DOCTORS FROM USING LIFE SAVING TREATMENTS BECAUSE ORANGE MAN BAD! Gretchen Whitmer: Possible VP Pick, Derping Loon.
COOL. EVERYONE IN VERMONT? START GOING NAKED. WE’LL SEE HOW LONG THAT LASTS: Vermont Says Target And Costco Sales Of Clothes, Toys, And Beauty Supplies Is Non-Essential.
It will also answer once and for all the question of whether or not a UFO landed in Des Moines Iowa, carrying what look like masses of animated tapioca. And whether a lot of people are wearing them between their shoulders. (What? Like the rest of you who have read Heinlein’s The Puppet Masters haven’t been thinking exactly that the last month!)
MODELING HUGO BOSS UNIFORMS: HOA Tyrants in the Days of Coronavirus.