ABOUT TIME: USS Gerald R. Ford’s EMALS cleared for all aircraft.

The US Navy’s (USN) newest aircraft carrier, the USS Gerald R Ford, has been cleared as operationally safe for launching and recovering all naval aircraft types using its Electromagnetic Aircraft Launch System (EMALS) and Advanced Arresting Gear (AAG).

The aircraft carrier, known also as CVN 78, completed at-sea compatibility testing with EMALS and AAG, demonstrating launch and recovery with the Boeing F/A-18E/F Super Hornet, E-2D Advanced Hawkeye, Northrop Grumman C-2A Greyhound, Boeing EA-18G Growler, and McDonnell Douglas T-45 Goshawk on 31 January.

Modifications will have to be made before the Ford can handle F-35C launches and recoveries.

ANNALS OF LEFTIST AUTOPHAGY: Gays Who Hate Pete Buttigieg.

AT AMAZON, Mountain House Just In Case 14-Day Emergency Food Supply.

KRUISER: The ‘Bloomberg News’ Conflict of Interest Grows Like a Cancer With Boss’s Rise in the Polls.

DELICIOUS MEDICINE: Cocoa may improve leg blood flow, walking in peripheral artery disease.

AND THE HITS JUST KEEP ON COMING: Bloomberg in 2011: Black, Latino Males ‘Don’t Know How to Behave in the Workplace.’

Related: Bloomberg Qualifies for Las Vegas Debate Thanks to Last Minute Poll.

“Much like Lori Laughlin’s daughter qualified for USC,” Iowahawk quips in response.

DECOUPLING: Europe braces for coronavirus-induced drug shortages.

While Europe is one of the world’s top manufacturers of drugs, the raw ingredients often come from China or India. This dependence on Asia was already a source of alarm at the EU’s highest political levels, with shortages and impurities prompting calls for action in both Brussels and national capitals.

Now the coronavirus, which is shutting down factories in China and preventing authorities from making sure plants are up to snuff, is on track to exacerbate existing shortages.

“We have seen there might be a possibility [of the] risk of shortages of supplies due to the coronavirus,” said German Health Minister Jens Spahn at an emergency meeting with his EU counterparts in Brussels Thursday. “We know many active ingredients are made in China, particularly in Hubei province.”

Hugh Hewitt tweeted: “So, there’s great risk in relying on PRC manufacturing, great risk in regulatory complexity and inflexibility, and great risk in prioritizing lowest cost in health care. In short, EU countries are in a bad place re drug supply.”

SPACE: SpaceX launch grows Starlink constellation to more than 300 satellites.

AB5: An Open Letter to CA Government Democrats – WHAT WERE YOU THINKING?

Congratulations, California Democrats! You’ve successfully scared the holy bejeezus out of all California companies. Now, let’s talk.

In Marvel Universe terms, you’re Tony Stark. You tried to do something to protect everyone, but you created Ultron. Now, it’s time for a Vision.

It’s been 6 weeks since AB5 was signed and put into effect. We’ve now had 6 weeks to see some actual results. So, as a CPA with clients in the Independent Contractor world, and as a lifelong Democrat whose Assemblyperson and Governor actually voted for this shitshow that is AB5, I need to ask: What were you thinking?

H.L. Mencken smiles.

TO BE FAIR, HE SHARES IT WITH MUCH OF OUR RULING CLASS AND MANY OF OUR UNIVERSITIES: Bloomberg’s China Conflict of Interest.

In a September 2019 interview with PBS’s Firing Line Bloomberg said: “The Communist Party wants to stay in power in China and they listen to the public.” Further, “Xi Jinping is not a dictator. He has to satisfy his constituents or he’s not going to survive.”

Bloomberg failed to mention that in 2013 Bloomberg News was caught in a scandal when it killed news stories revealing corruption related to Xi Jinping’s family members, prompting various reporters and editors to resign. It turned out that Bloomberg News leadership told the editors that stories about the families of politburo members were off limits.

When challenged by host Margaret Hoover of PBS on whether he really believes Xi is “responsive” to the democratic will of the people, Bloomberg doubled down. “The Chinese Communist Party looks at Russia and they look for where the Communist Party is and they don’t find it anymore. And they don’t want that to happen. So, they really are responsive.”

These absurd statements fly in the face of the what is happening in Xinjiang province with the forced imprisonment of nearly 2 million Uighur Muslims in “re-education” camps. The continuing government crackdown on the citizens of Hong Kong as well as the closing of innumerable Christian churches, jailing pastors and even rewriting Scripture. (Additionally, nearly 500,000 individuals are currently detained in “Black Jails” and mental health institutions without trial, charges or access to legal aid. Most recently, video has surfaced of the government’s reaction to the coronavirus by physically dragging victims or potential victims of the virus kicking and screaming into expansive state pens. . . .

As Josh Rogin of the Washington Post points out, among the ways Michael Bloomberg and his company Bloomberg LP make a considerable amount of money in China is not only through the extraordinarily profitable licensing of its financial software but via its massive Bloomberg Barclays Global Aggregate Bond Index. Bloomberg LP is helping finance Chinese companies by sending billions of U.S. investor dollars into the Chinese bond market.

Follow the money.

WELL, FATAL COMPLACENCY IS KIND OF THEIR THING: The EU is fatally complacent about the crisis that is about to engulf it.

A BILL WHITTLE PODCAST: The Cold War: What We Saw | The Thing Begins – Episode 3.

NEWS YOU CAN USE: Vitamin Deficiencies Can Mess With Your Mental Health.

ANALYSIS: TRUE. Political Pundits Have No Idea What They’re Talking About.

Warren’s collapse reveals the sorry state of today’s political media. From the perspective of voters who watch cable news and take seriously the so-called analysis and punditry they hear from so-called political experts in the media, Warren’s downfall is a shocking development. But it’s only the latest of many examples of said “experts” having absolutely no idea what they’re talking about and showing why no one should take them seriously.

Warren’s campaign, oddly enough, made this very point in a memo it sent to supporters (and the New York Times) ahead of the New Hampshire primary—in which Warren finished a distant fourth and failed to win any delegates. “People who are predicting what will happen a week from now are the same people who a year ago predicted that Beto O’Rourke was a frontrunner for the nomination,” wrote campaign manager Roger Lau.

Lau makes a legitimate point, but it applies to his own candidate as well. Warren, who made history as the “first woman of color” employed by Harvard Law School, was once widely touted by political pundits as the candidate to beat.

Not that their analysis was based on anything other than conventional wisdom. For most of 2019, betting markets viewed Warren as the second most likely candidate to win the nomination, behind former vice president Joe Biden. After New Hampshire, betting markets rank Biden fourth, at 9.2 percent. Warren is sixth, at 2.2 percent, behind Hillary Clinton.

To be fair, being behind Hillary Clinton is a lot safer than having her behind you.

OCEANIA HAS NEVER BEEN AT WAR WITH EAST ASIA: Why the media wants you to forget about Michael Avenatti.

WHEN DID HE EVER? Trump Doesn’t Mince Words After Obama Takes Credit for Booming Economy.

DEATH BY SOCIALISM: Sanders Takes Huge Lead Over Rivals. “The Bernie Bros look poised to take over the Democratic Party in nearly the exact same way Delta House took over the Faber College homecoming parade: With rampant chaos and destruction.”

CONCUSSION CONFUSION: StrategyPage’s editor, James F. Dunnigan, looks at the January 8, 2020 Iranian ballistic missile strike on three American bases in Iraq and the subsequent concussion injury controversy.

Scroll down for this:

By 2011 the U.S. military felt they had new concussion damage detection tools that military doctors could state how badly a concussion victim was hurt. This was still not an exact science but it was much more precise than in the past. With this new information, the military established guidelines for which concussion victims were eligible for a Purple Heart and which were not. In reality, most combat troops had long since adopted their own criteria and many would refuse Purple Hearts for light wounds or combat injuries. That said, even combat veterans recognized that some concussion injuries could be as debilitating as losing a limb, eyesight or the disfigurement of severe burns.

The post includes a long discussion of PTSD (and its prior names, like shock and combat fatigue), what the U.S. Army and Marines have learned about PTSD since 2001, and what the military and medical community are doing about it.

UPDATE: Date corrected. Thanks.

WELL, YES: Xi’s early involvement in virus outbreak raises questions.

The disclosure of his speech indicates top leaders knew about the outbreak’s potential severity at least two weeks before such dangers were made known to the public. It was not until late January that officials said the virus can spread between humans and public alarm began to rise.

Zhang Lifan, a commentator in Beijing, said it’s not clear why the speech was published now. One message could be that local authorities should take responsibility for failing to take effective measures after Xi gave instructions in early January. Alternatively, it may mean that Xi, as the top leader, is willing to take responsibility because he was aware of the situation, Zhang said.

Trust in the government’s approach to outbreaks remains fractured after the SARS epidemic of 2002 and 2003, which was covered up for months.

Authorities in Hubei and Wuhan faced public fury over their initial handling of the epidemic. In apparent response, the Communist Party’s top officials in Hubei and Wuhan were dismissed and replaced last week.

Hubei announced Sunday that all vehicle traffic will be banned across the province, expanding on an existing ban in Wuhan, in another step to try to stop the spread of the virus. Exceptions will be made for vehicles involved in epidemic prevention and transporting daily necessities.

Weird, but Tom Friedman had assured me that China’s authoritarian regime allowed them to get things done.

HIGHER EDUCATION BUBBLE UPDATE: Harvard Law silent on why Scalia professorship remains unfilled years later.

WE ALL KNOW WHY. In remembering the legacy of extraordinary black Americans, why does Clarence Thomas always go ignored?

ANOTHER WOMAN OF COLOR OVERSHADOWED BY WEALTHY WHITE MEN: Elizabeth Warren’s Allies Claim ‘Erasure’ as They Seek to Reignite Campaign.

TOM NICHOLS: Sanders was ridiculously naive about the Soviet Union. The Trump ads write themselves.

Oh, please. Sanders wasn’t (and isn’t) naive, Tom: He’s a committed socialist on the road to True Communism.

HIGHER EDUCATION AS ADVERSARY CULTURE: Profs promote Antifa-esque video encouraging followers to ‘f**k *sh*t up.’