Archive for 2020
May 7, 2020
HMM: Prosecutor of ex-Trump aide Michael Flynn withdraws from case amid controversy over documents.
A former top prosecutor for Robert Mueller’s special counsel investigation abruptly withdrew from the case against retired Lt. Gen. Michael Flynn.
Brandon Van Grack, a special assistant U.S. attorney and the chief of the Foreign Agents Registration Act Unit at the Justice Department, submitted a notice of withdrawal to the U.S. District Court for the District of Columbia on Thursday. A reason for his withdrawal was not given.
Van Grack leaves the case facing rising criticism from Flynn’s legal team and allies of President Trump, who believe he did not comply with the judge’s order to produce all evidence in the government’s possession “that is favorable to defendant and material either to defendant’s guilt or punishment.”
Trump has said he is considering a pardon for his former national security adviser, and late last month, he said he would consider bringing Flynn back into his administration, noting he was “essentially exonerated.”
In a sign that’s more ominous still for Van Grack’s career, and the government’s case against Flynn, he’s reportedly also withdrawing from his other government cases.
UPDATE: AP Exclusive: Justice Dept dropping Flynn’s criminal case. AP is still trying to cover for DOJ, but this is a debacle of the first order for them. The length and nature of this story also suggests that AP had some warning, no doubt from within the DOJ, that this was coming, hence the spin.
BREAKING: FDA Pulls Approval for Dozens of Mask Makers in China. “Tests have shown many imported masks perform far short of N95 filtration standards.”
The Food and Drug Administration said Thursday that it had cut the number of mask makers in China approved to make N95-style masks for domestic use to 14, from around 80. That reversed an April 3 decision to allow the imports from manufacturers whose masks hadn’t been tested by U.S. authorities if they met standards set by some other nations or were reviewed by an independent laboratory.
The shift illustrates the challenge to federal officials who are trying to help fill huge demand for masks from front-line workers battling the coronavirus pandemic, while also ensuring that medical gear works effectively.
“We’ve been using all of our authorities to increase availability,” an FDA official said in an interview. “There were a growing number of respirators that failed to meet the expedited performance standards.”
The move follows a report by The Wall Street Journal that found U.S. regulators and state officials had identified a significant number of imported N95-style masks were falling below standards.
Don’t trust China. China is asshole.
WELL, IT’S NOT WARP DRIVE, BUT IT’S SOMETHING: Engineers Just Tested an ‘Impossible’ Detonation Engine For The First Time – And It Works.
I THOUGHT SHE WAS TOO BUSY AS GOVERNOR OF GEORGIA FOR THIS: Stacey Abrams Laughably Tries a New Tack in Her Desperate Bid for the VP Nod.
DISPATCHES FROM THE MEMORY HOLE: Woodstock Occurred in the Middle of a Flu Pandemic.
(Bumped.)
HEY, YOGA STARTED AS A SEX CULT, YOU CAN’T HAVE PEOPLE GETTING A HEADACHE: For better migraine treatment, try adding some downward dogs.
BUT TRUMP SAID MEAN THINGS THAT HURT BECAUSE THEY WERE TRUE: Malaysian journalist faces six years in prison over COVID-19 Facebook posts.
SNOWFALLS ARE NOW JUST A THING OF THE PAST: Potentially historic May snowstorm headed for Northeast and New England.
No word yet if the snowstorm will also bring the Asian murder hornets, Kim Jong Un’s stunt double, and swarms of declassified UFOs to the east coast.
(Classical reference in headline.)
PHILIP CARL SALZMAN: A Modest Proposal for Opening Universities: Some Faculties Should Remain Closed.
In dealing with this Chinese pandemic, the U.S. and Canada have responded by distinguishing between “essential” and “nonessential” workers, businesses, and activities. Universities and colleges should draw this distinction as they consider reopening. What faculties are essential in universities? The sciences, engineering, mathematics, and computer studies are essential, in that they make a major economic contribution. The faculty of medicine and nursing are essential for the wellbeing of the population. The faculty of business serves society’s practical needs, and can be considered at least quasi-essential.
But, in contrast to the previous, many faculties are not essential; they are in fact counter-productive for society. The “humanities” and “social sciences,” with their grievance advocacy “studies” programs, such as women’s studies, black studies, Latinx studies, queer studies, and the like, today function primarily to divide people and advance Marxist goals such as class conflict, socialist governance, redistribution of wealth, and so are counterproductive. So too with the radical faculties of education and social work, all relentlessly ideological, and all sending their activists under the guise of teachers and social workers. The faculty of law is inessential; we have too many lawyers already, most living well off of the misery of citizens. [You gonna leave this bit in the blockquote? — ed It’s not entirely true, but it’s not entirely false, either.]
University administrations are chock full of nonessential positions and employees. The vast multiplication of deans, associate deans, assistant deans, and assistants to the assistant deans, vice presidents, associate vice presidents, assistant vice presidents, etc. etc. should be culled vigorously. The first who should be axed are the scores or hundreds of “diversity and inclusion” officers, who have been hired to enforce “social justice” ideology, silence dissent, and serve the “special needs” of preferred categories of students and staff. Nothing is so inimical to academic life as ideological commissars with belts of enforcement tools spying on students and professors. In the U.S., Title IX officers armed with Obama and Biden dictates have systematically victimized male students, as many subsequent law court cases have shown. Show them the door, and some semblance of justice might return to campuses.
Well, they’re already furloughing administrators in Alaska, so I guess there’s a chance.
DISPATCHES FROM THE MANCHURIAN MEDIA: China gets top score as citizens rank their governments’ response to the coronavirus outbreak, CNBC “reports.”
Flashback: “The Chinese government plans to launch its Social Credit System in 2020. The aim? To judge the trustworthiness – or otherwise – of its 1.3 billion residents.”
WHAT WOULD WE DO WITHOUT EXPERTS? Flashback: Licking Subway Poles “Probably Fine,” Says Expert.
DISPATCHES FROM THE EDUCATION APOCALYPSE: 1619 Project’s Pulitzer Gives Schools One More Excuse To Teach Kids To Hate America.
WHY ARE NEWS MEDIA ORGANIZATIONS SUCH CESSPITS OF MISOGYNY, DISCRIMINATION, AND ABUSE? ‘They Shun Us in the Newsroom’: NY1 Women Who Sued For Discrimination Say They’re Facing Retaliation. Some of it sounds more like cattiness than Norma Rae stuff: “The producer said he personally saw a fellow NY1 reporter comment that Shaughnessy, an anchor and reporter, was too old to be wearing a long-sleeved shirt with cut out shoulders—an incident also described by another former NY1 producer.”
ROGER SIMON: Pelosi Redefines Hypocrisy and Destroys #MeToo for… Biden?
I keep thinking Biden won’t be the nominee, but then I see all these Dem heavyweights taking a bullet for him.
FLASHBACK, 1992: Apparently, faculty claiming phony Native American status was common at Harvard. Of course, Harvard made up for its insensitivity in this regard a few years later by hiring … Elizabeth Warren, and touting her as their first Native American member of the law school faculty.
(Source: Detroit News, April 12, 1992)
IT’S FAR FROM JUST TRUMP AND SOME OF HIS TOP AIDES: Trump and some top aides question accuracy of virus death toll.
FOR THE FIRST TIME SINCE 1994, I ACTUALLY WANT MY MTV: Hundreds of Hours Worth of 1980s-Era MTV Programming Uploaded Online.
Flashback: Them’s Fightin’ Words: ‘Music in the ’80s Sucked.’
AS YALI ELKIN SAYS ON FACEBOOK, this picture brings a whole new meaning to “plate carrier.”
So, let’s unpack this a bit. First, sheriffs shouldn’t have armored vehicles. Second, sheriffs who have armored vehicles shouldn’t use them to shut down salons for violating a quarantine order. Third, law enforcement officers shouldn’t be grossly obese. Fourth, law enforcement officers who are grossly obese shouldn’t be mincing around like tactical hippos.
Finally: So many libertarians are unhappy with the way things are going, when they should be delighted at how they’re making the powers that be look ridiculous. For all the BS TV shows like NCIS, this is much closer to the true face of law enforcement in America. Rub their noses, and protruding bellies, in it.
UPDATE: According to a comment, this picture, despite the caption, comes from the shutdown of a bar, not a hair salon, and that appears to be correct. My comments above, as adjusted, remain the same. Plus, the sheriff’s response to people protesting his action kind of misses the point:
“I’m getting calls from all over the country threatening to shoot me, I mean it’s just been crazy,” Griffis said told NewsWest9 Wednesday. “All these people that are here from wherever you came from, just go home and get yourself a job.”
I think the jobs are kind of the problem here, Sheriff.
ANOTHER UPDATE: From the comments: “Sadly, they also don’t realize how ridiculous they look, using a tank to close down a bar, hair salon, or whatever. This screams ‘RESPECT MAH AUTHORITAH!!!’, while tacitly admitting that nobody respects your authoritah.”
Yes, if people respect your authority you don’t need an MRAP. Of course, they don’t really think they need it here. It’s just in the garage and they want an excuse to take it out for a spin. Better leadership would have known better, of course.
PRINCE HARRY NEEDS TO READ THIS: Suzanne Venker: Dear Men, Don’t be so wussy with your wife.
Related: ‘Meghan Doesn’t Like It’: Harry Sells Rifle Collection To Reportedly Please Meghan. Prediction: She won’t stay pleased.