AN ALTERNATIVE 2030 SCENARIO: US Navy Robots, Carriers and Mines Counterattack China. Read the entire essay.

PAST PERFORMANCE IS NO GUARANTEE OF FUTURE RESULTS: Biden Pledges Not to Fire Inspectors General, Gets Tripped up When Reminded It Happened Under Obama-Biden.

YOU WENT FULL KAREN. NEVER GO FULL KAREN: Mika Brzezinski Demands Twitter Cancel President Trump in Embarrassing Rant.

AND YET POOLS WERE CLOSED EVERYWHERE, WITH NO SCIENCE BEHIND THE DECISION: ‘No evidence’ COVID-19 can be spread in swimming pools, CDC says.

Apparently the only coronavirus countermeasure that can’t be deployed without peer-reviewed, double-blind studies involving thousands is hydroxychloroquine. For everything else it’s just go with your gut and shout “Science!” at anyone who expresses doubts.

POLITICS AND THE ENGLISH LANGUAGE: The Lies We Live By.

UGH: More than 100,000 cruise crew members stranded at sea since mid-March.

IT’S ONLY A MODEL: COVID-19 forecasters slash projections for NC death toll.

WELL, GOOD: Controlling blood pressure may reduce dementia risk by 7%.

WELL, YES. UNEMPLOYMENT INSURANCE IS FOR WHEN YOU’RE UNEMPLOYED. Mnuchin says employees who reject offer to return to work are ineligible for unemployment benefits.

WE TOLD YOU TWITTER WAS A CESSPIT: A new parasite that attaches to the genitals of its host has been discovered on Twitter.

WELL, YES: Our Plea Bargain System Can Make the Innocent Admit Guilt. Enter Michael Flynn. It’s significant that this point is being made in the WaPo, by extreme NeverTrumper George Will.

See also, my Ham Sandwich Nation piece.

THANOS SMILES: The Top 14 MSM Celebrations of the ‘Silver Linings’ of the Pandemic.

DON’T EXPECT THE PRESS TO ADMIT ITS ERRORS:

Related: Where Does Ron DeSantis Go to Get His Apology? “An irony of the national coverage of the coronavirus crisis is that at the same time DeSantis was being made into a villain, New York governor Andrew Cuomo was being elevated as a hero, even though the DeSantis approach to nursing homes was obviously superior to that of Cuomo. Florida went out of its way to get COVID-19-positive people out of nursing homes, while New York went out of its way to get them in, a policy now widely acknowledged to have been a debacle.”

Plus:

DeSantis is bemused by the obsession with Florida’s beaches. When they opened in Jacksonville, it was a big national story, usually relayed with a dire tone. “Jacksonville has almost no COVID activity outside of a nursing-home context,” he says. “Their hospitalizations are down, ICU down since the beaches opened a month ago. And yet, nobody talks about it. It’s just like, ‘Okay, we just move on to the next target.’”

There’s a reason why some people call them the “drive-by media.”

TO BE FAIR, THIS IS ONLY ONE OF THE MANY WAYS CALIFORNIA IS IN TROUBLE: Why California Is In Trouble – 340,000 Public Employees With $100,000+ Paychecks Cost Taxpayers $45 Billion.

Heinlein noted years ago, “In a mature society, ‘civil servant’ is semantically equal to ‘civil master’.”

SEN. JAMES LANKFORD ON HUGH HEWITT: “We do know at this point that [Obama] was engaged in it. He was informed about it, and then what his instructions were to his team and what he was kind of giving a wink and a nod to Comey to be able to carry out is unknown at this point. We do know that Comey in the earliest days of the Trump administration was discussing some way to be able to entrap the President.”

via GIPHY

THE POWER LINE MIDWEEK IN PICTURES: Hump Day Edition.

CHANGE: New Orleans’ Remarkable Recovery: City Has Gone 3 Days Without A Coronavirus Death.

Related: London and the East of England have both gone 24 hours without a single new coronavirus case being officially recorded.

MORE LIKE THIS, PLEASE: Trump Just Provided the Flailing Economy a Much-Needed Boost.

BAR MILLIONAIRES FROM GETTING EXTRA $600 A WEEK: Want to make coastal elites squeal? Support Sen. Joni Ernst (R-Iowa) bill making anybody with $1 million or more in annual income ineligible for that extra $600 a week from the feds for the unemployed.

GOV. ABBOTT SAYS TEXAS BARS CAN OPEN FRIDAY.

THE GREAT REOPENING: The Florida Keys Are Reopening to Tourists Starting June 1.

BONE WITH A DANISH ESCORT: A B-1B Lancer flies with a Danish F-16 during a training mission for Bomber Task Force Europe. Photo taken May 11, 2020. Yes, an American heavy bomber over Europe– if you found this title suggestive, shame on you. The B-1B can handle anti-shipping missions as well as land attack.

UH HUH. U.S. intel concerns ‘do not apply’ to our Confucius Institute, university claims.

WAR IS PEACE, FREEDOM IS SLAVERY: WaPo Columnist Claims Open Carry Is A Threat to Democracy.

Related: