DISPATCHES FROM THE EDUCATION APOCALYPSE: Lori Loughlin, Mossimo Giannulli to plead guilty in college admissions scam.
Archive for 2020
May 21, 2020
NO. NEXT QUESTION? Can we believe Ilhan Omar’s autobiography?
NOTHING TO SEE HERE, MOVE ALONG: Scientists use ultrasonic mind control on monkeys. So all those guys who think the government is using mind control beams to control their thoughts are just . . . a little early.
HOW RUSSIAGATE BEGAN WITH OBAMA’S IRAN DEAL DOMESTIC SPYING CAMPAIGN:
So if the Obama administration wasn’t alarmed by Flynn’s nonexistent ties to Russia, why was he Obama’s No. 1 target? Why were officials from the previous administration intercepting his phone calls with the Russian ambassador?
The answer is that Obama saw Flynn as a signal threat to his legacy, which was rooted in his July 2015 nuclear agreement with Iran—the Joint Comprehensive Plan of Action (JCPOA). Flynn had said long before he signed on with the Trump campaign that it was a catastrophe to realign American interests with those of a terror state. And now that the candidate he’d advised was the new president-elect, Flynn was in a position to help undo the deal. To stop Flynn, the outgoing White House ran the same offense it used to sell the Iran deal—they smeared Flynn through the press as an agent of a foreign power, spied on him, and leaked classified intercepts of his conversations to reliable echo chamber allies.
Read the whole thing.
REMEMBER WHEN THE WORRY WAS OVERPOPULATION? Baby Bust: U.S. birth rate declines to 35-year low.
IT’S ALWAYS PROJECTION: Gov. Cuomo Blames Trump for New York’s Thousands of Nursing Home Deaths.
HIGHER EDUCATON BUBBLE UPDATE, LEGAL EDUCATION EDITION: Valparaiso Graduates Its Last Law School Class Of 14 Students. “In the last three years, Valparaiso University’s final class of law school graduates have studied under extraordinary circumstances — first learning their school, a 141-year-old institution, would be closing upon their graduation, then completing their legal education in the midst of a sweeping global pandemic.”
NASHVILLE TO MOVE ON TO PHASE TWO OF REOPENING ON MONDAY: “Restaurants and retail stores to open at 75% capacity and bring salons, gyms and attractions back at half-capacity.”
MEANWHILE, OVER AT VODKAPUNDIT: Party of Science Still Sticking COVID-19 Victims in Nursing Homes, Because Science.
ILYA SHAPIRO: Broad Lockdowns Are No Longer Constitutionally Justified.
States have the “police power” to govern for the general health, welfare and safety of society, so long as they have sufficient justification for doing so. But that doesn’t mean that there’s no limit on the actions that state and local officials can take, or that actions that were justified at one point will continue to be justified forever, regardless of underlying developments.
In other words, it’s prudent in a pandemic to restrict activities that would otherwise bring people together in a way that facilitates viral transmission, but it doesn’t mean governors get to “shut down” anything and everything on a whim. Recall that viral video of the guy running along the beach in California, chased by a hapless cop. Or that dad who got arrested for playing catch with his kids in a public park. Or mayoral edicts that stop drive-in church but permit drive-thru liquor sales. Or the Michigan order banning motorboats but not sailboats; the sale of seeds but not weed. . . .
As the facts on the ground change, government actions that once were grudgingly accepted now simply don’t pass the constitutional smell test. That’s especially so given the fundamental error that was made in ordering shutdowns based on arbitrary definitions of “essentiality,” as opposed to issuing rules according to the safety of various activities.
Yes.
IN THE MAIL: Why We Get Fat: And What to Do About It.
RAND PAUL & ANDY BIGGS: Anthony Fauci wants America closed until there’s nothing to reopen.
SEIZING THE MEANS OF PRODUCTION IS AS COMMUNIST AS, WELL, COMMUNIST CHINA: China seizes control of PPE factories, sparking fear of new coronavirus wave.
COLLUSION: Universities try to block Congress from accessing documents detailing their ties to China.
If they want to keep them, they should forego federal funds.
GROWLER LAUNCH: An EA/18G Growler electronic attack aircraft prepares to launch from the flight deck of the aircraft carrier USS Abraham Lincoln. Here’s a post from 2014 discussing how the Navy uses the Growler. This photo from 2017 shows a Growler “fully loaded.”
NOW OUT FROM JONATHAN ADLER: Marijuana Federalism: Uncle Sam and Mary Jane.
