IN THE FACE OF WIDESPREAD POPULAR RESISTANCE, ENFORCEMENT IS INCREASINGLY HALF-HEARTED: Police to New Jersey gym that opened in defiance of order: “Have a good day.”
People keep telling me that the long night of fascism is descending on America, but what I’m seeing is the biggest popular revolt against authority in my lifetime.
BATTLESWARM BLOG: BidenWatch for May 18, 2020. “Biden panders to the left, banks mad Benjamins, slices up some more word salad, gives the high hat to Stacey Abrams, and his secret weapon is…#NeverTrump?”
MEANWHILE, BACK AT THE GWOT: Saudi Shooter at Florida Military Base on December 6, 2019 Had Ties to al-Qaeda.
ROUNDUP: Vaccine News You Can Use. This sounds very promising, but it’s also early.
THE LATEST DUMB IDEA FROM THE LEFT: Nationalize Amazon. A friend on Facebook’s reaction: “Implicit in this screed is an admission that government never could have built this, so they should just take it and, predictably, run it into the ground.”
SIT DOWN, SHUT UP, AND BE GRATEFUL FOR ANY CRUMBS YOUR LEVIATHAN STATE MIGHT GET: Gov. Newsom Says Congress Has a ‘Moral’ and ‘Ethical’ Obligation to Bail Out States.
UPDATE (FROM GLENN): Any bailout should be conditional on splitting the red part off into its own state. Or, if Trump gets a big enough Congressional majority in November, on splitting the red part off into three states.
BLOODLESS? TELL THAT TO ALL THE PEOPLE IN NURSING HOMES CUOMO KILLED: Lawsuit Against Cuomo Alleges ‘Bloodless Coup’ Has Stripped New Yorkers of Their Constitutional Rights.
OBAMAGATE: President Trump unmasks Obama’s unmaskers.
BLUE ANGEL HOOKUP: Well, one of the USN’s Blue Angels refueling aloft, courtesy of a USAF tanker. Photo taken May 6.
DOUBLE STANDARDS ARE THE BEST STANDARDS BECAUSE YOU HAVE TWICE AS MANY AS LESS-PRINCIPLED PEOPLE DO: Missouri Dem Touts Endorsement From Dark Money Group After Denouncing Dark Money.
MAP: Here are the Chinese ‘propaganda’ centers currently operating in the US. “Colleges continue to ignore these warnings” because money and influence.
SO IN THE COMMENTS YESTERDAY, someone from Knoxville mentioned that traffic to the beach was heavy. I looked on Booking.com and it showed 92% of Hilton Head hotels were booked for Memorial Day weekend. Even for mid-June it was 76%. This suggests a swift recovery, post-lockdown. Or am I missing something?
KRUISER’S MORNING BRIEF: Lock Up the Lockdown Governors. “The ‘never let a crisis go to waste’ crowd continues to overplay its hand, which is why this would be the perfect time to begin some real push-back against them.”
QUESTION ASKED AND ANSWERED: Where’s my father’s America?
I understand the very real economic impact on businesses in the United States. I run one of those businesses. We scrambled to create liquidity, we reduced pay, we filed for a PPP loan and we have watched several of our customers declare bankruptcy. I don’t just have a front row seat, I am in the game. In April, I watched helplessly as my revenue went almost to zero. However, I have not wavered in my desire to use data to properly reopen our communities. More importantly, I am not willing to risk my immediate family, my employees or my mother without data.
We revered the greatest generation for sacrificing their lives to die in Europe and Asia. Fathers, sons and brothers died thousands of miles from home. The mothers, daughters and sisters who couldn’t join the military stayed home and ran our factories. The one for all and all for one spirit of Americans is a thread that runs through centuries of American history. But, now, we are offended that we have to wear a mask in public. My Facebook feed is full of surveys asking if I am wearing a mask in public. There is post after post saying “we have to get the economy going again.” I know, but “we’re overacting, heart disease kills more people and thousands are dying from cancer.” True, except we do everything in our power to save victims of those diseases. We participate in marathons, crowdfund families and donate to St. Jude’s. We believe we are doing all we can for those victims. Yet, with COVID-19, we find it acceptable for the Lt. Governor of my state to say that he’s “All in” if the exchange is sacrificing grandparents for the economy.
Lesson #2, this not our America. This is not who we are. We can wear masks and we can social distance.
WHEN HE’S RIGHT, HE’S RIGHT: Bill Maher On OCD Pandemic Overreaction: ‘What’s The Point Of Life If You Can’t Live It?’
NEWS MEDIA HARDEST HIT: Trump approval at Gallup ‘highest,’ better than Obama, Bush. “Despite a wave of critical news coverage and Democratic catcalls, President Trump sits at his ‘highest’ approval in the latest Gallup survey, and above where four of the last six presidents, including Barack Obama and George W. Bush, were at this point of the first term. . . . Some pollsters explain that there has been a backlash against the media’s coverage of Trump and the coronavirus and the economy.” Ya think?
President Barack Obama’s Treasury Department regularly surveilled retired Army Lt. Gen. Michael T. Flynn’s financial records and transactions beginning in December 2015 and well into 2017, before, during and after when he served at the White House as President Donald Trump’s National Security Director, a former senior Treasury Department official, and veteran of the intelligence community, told the Star Newspapers.
“I started seeing things that were not correct, so I did my own little investigation, because I wanted to make sure what I was seeing was correct” she said. “You never want to draw attention to something if there is not anything there.”
The whistleblower said she only saw metadata, that is names and dates when the general’s financial records were accessed. “I never saw what they saw.”
By March 2016, the whistleblower said she and a colleague, who was detailed to Treasury from the intelligence community, became convinced that the surveillance of Flynn was not tied to legitimate criminal or national security concerns, but was straight-up political surveillance among other illegal activity occurring at Treasury. . . . This ruse was to get around using classified resources to surveil Americans, she said. Once the Treasury personnel had enough information about someone they were targeting from the black box, they would go to the white box for faster and more informed search.
It was routine for these searches that had no criminal nor national security predicate, merely a political predicate, she said.
People need to be jailed for this kind of thing. If not shot.
ILLEGAL FUN. UNDER THE SUN:
STRIKE A POSE, THERE’S NOTHING TO IT: CNN’s Collins Scolds Trump for Not Wearing Mask, Rips Off Her Own.
InstaPundit is a participant in the Amazon Services LLC Associates Program, an affiliate advertising program designed to provide a means for sites to earn advertising fees by advertising and linking to Amazon.com.
