DUST ON THE TANK TRAIL: An M1A2 Abrams tank moves at high speed, kicking up dust on a tank trail in the woods. The action photo’s from 2016. But the Pentagon caption is an ad for this year’s Sullivan Cup Tank Crew Competition at Fort Benning, Georgia. The cup competition is held every two years. According to the caption the competition “brings together top tank crews from the U.S. Army, U.S. Marine Corps and foreign military partners in a demanding test of their tank crew fighting skills.”

GREAT ORATORS OF THE DEMOCRATIC PARTY. To borrow an old recurring leitmotif of James Taranto, when he was writing the Wall Street Journal’s Best of the Web Today:

● “One man with courage makes a majority.” — attributed to Andrew Jackson.

● “The only thing we have to fear is fear itself.” — Franklin D. Roosevelt.

● “The buck stops here.” — Harry S. Truman.

● “Ask not what your country can do for you; ask what you can do for your country.” — John F. Kennedy.

● “I will code what I really want to say to Donald Trump. It’s two words. It begins with F and it ends with U.” — Chicago mayor Lori Lightfoot, yesterday.

NOW ITS INSTAGRAM CENSORING A CONSERVATIVE ELECTED OFFICIAL: Sen. Marsha Blackburn (R-TN) and her daughter had a children’s book being promoted on Instagram. Not now. Instagram claims the book could influence elections. Yes, that’s really what Instagram said.

HAVE WE WON? Coronavirus task force chief Mike Pence: You did it, America.

It was early in the virus fight when only a few in the United States had died of COVID-19 that White House coronavirus task force leader Vice President Mike Pence and Drs. Anthony Fauci and Deborah Birx went into the Oval Office with bad news.

Armed with a chart titled “Goals of Community Mitigation,” they showed President Trump that without the type of social distancing they wanted him to put in place, the virus death toll could reach 1.5 million to 2.2 million. With it, the range would drop to 100,000 to 240,000.

“The president said, ‘Do it.’ No hesitation,” recalled the vice president.

The public was urged to stay apart and stay home to “flatten the curve” of the pandemic, and they did. Today, as many states begin to ease rules near the Memorial Day holiday week turning point that Pence predicted, the death toll, tragic as it is, stands at the lowest level on that chart.

And Pence believes that while he, the president, the administration, governors, and industry did yeoman’s work to contain the virus, it is the public that deserves the biggest applause.

“This is all evidence of what the American people have done,” Pence said in his first interview to review the battle. “Because of the cooperation and compassion of the American people, we slowed the spread, we flattened the curve, we saved lives, and I have no doubt about that,” said the vice president during an hourlong talk with Secrets.

The way I see it, over 2 million lives have been saved thanks to President Trump’s swift, no-hesitation action. Bravo!

YOU’RE GONNA NEED A BIGGER BLOG: Andrew Cuomo’s deadly failures.

The major story of the coronavirus epidemic in New York is how the governor’s policies toward long-term care facilities enabled the virus to run rampant among our most vulnerable population. In late April, it came to light that the previous month, the state ordered long-term care facilities to readmit residents who had been treated for the coronavirus. New residents who were “medically stable” were to be admitted as well. Thus did Cuomo’s New York guarantee that the most vulnerable population would be widely exposed to COVID-19 in environments that enabled its quick and deadly spread.

The official tally has about 20% of New York coronavirus deaths attributed to nursing homes, but we actually can’t be certain of how many people died because of this negligence. If someone from one of these mass-infected nursing homes died in a hospital, it’s not counted as a nursing home death. There’s also evidence that many of those who died at nursing homes weren’t tested for COVID-19, so the official statistic remains a question mark, but it’s almost certainly higher, perhaps much higher, than the state admits.

The count matters because it otherwise obscures the real picture. On May 9, the New York Times reported that nursing home residents and workers accounted for one-third of the nation’s COVID-19 deaths but that only 11% of cases actually occurred inside those facilities. According to a new Associated Press count, at least 4,500 recovering coronavirus patients were sent to New York nursing homes.

Cuomo, for his part, is mostly satisfied with how his government handled events.

Earlier: Where Does Ron Desantis Go To Get His Apology? “As the health officials put it, succinctly, ‘We wanted people out [of the nursing homes], not in.’”

‘WHY DO I HAVE TO PLAY BY SOMEBODY’S RULES IF THERE’S NO JUSTICE?’ MSNBC Anchor Empathizes with Rioters, Looters on Hot Mic.

Curiously, MSNBC is so big government, the network believes that, as Rich Lowry summed up one of their 2013 commercials, “Your Kids Aren’t Your Own.” But evidently, the socialist panopticon state gets a “Festival!” timeout to allow the citizens to periodically blow off steam:

A BORDERLESS WORLD ISN’T LOOKING AS ATTRACTIVE NOW, IS IT? DHS: Bigger virus ‘catastrophe’ avoided by stopping illegal immigration.

THE TYRANNY OF CLICHÉS: Thwap! Joe Biden steps on some self-awareness rakes while naming what those ‘who sit in some position of influence’ must ‘finally deal with.’

Biden says grappling with issues of systemic injustice “is going to require those of us who sit in some position of influence to finally deal with the abuse of power.”

“With our complacency, our silence, we are complicit in perpetuating these cycles of violence.”

Does Biden still remember he served as vice president of the United States for eight years, and as a senator for 36 years prior to that? Or that he wrote the 1994 crime bill, that the left now hates?

I’M GLAD THE RIOTERS WILL CONTINUE TO SOCIALLY DISTANCE IN THE MEANTIME: Andrew Cuomo says NYC will begin reopening process on June 8.

HMM, I’VE BEEN MORE WORRIED THAT PEOPLE AREN’T TAKING IT SERIOUSLY ENOUGH: Matthew Continetti: Why Republicans Are Worried About November.

LOS ANGELES COUNTY RESTAURANTS CAN NOW OPEN: “If you can operate under the directives, then yes, the order goes into effect today,” Dr. Barbara Ferrer, the county public health supervisor, said yesterday.

SPIKE LEE’S DO THE RIGHT THING IS A WARNING*, NOT A HOW-TO GUIDE FOR RESTAURATEURS: Restaurant owner says ‘let my building burn’ amid George Floyd protests.

* Whatever Lee’s intentions in writing his film’s ending.

GOOD IDEA: Restore tax incentives to make pharmaceuticals in Puerto Rico. Or maybe extend those to the entire United States?

LOUISVILLE COP TAKES AIM AND SHOOTS REPORTER AND HER CAMERAMAN WITH PEPPER BALLS LIVE ON LIVE TV.

COLLEGE FOOTBALL HALL OF FAME SEVERELY DAMAGED, LOOTED DURING PROTESTS IN ATLANTA.

RIOT POLICE, NATIONAL GUARD ‘COMPLETELY ABANDON’ PERIMETER IN MINNEAPOLIS, CHASED AWAY BY PROTESTERS.

AT AMAZON, Gamo 6110017154 Varmint Air Rifle .177 Cal.

Or you can get a lot fancier.

STANDARTENFUHRER WHITMER THINKS DRIVE-IN THEATERS ARE NEXI OF INFECTION? Dearborn’s Ford-Wyoming drive-in theater shut down again by police.

At this rate, we’re going to see more riots.

OPEN THREAD: Nothin’ here but history, can you see what has been done?

HOW’S THAT SPACE PROGRAM COMING ALONG? Meteor that blasted millions of trees in Siberia only ‘grazed’ Earth, new research says.

WHITE HOUSE BRIEFLY LOCKED DOWN AS UNREST SPREADS TO ATLANTA, DC, NYC AFTER GEORGE FLOYD DEATH.

AMERICA’S NEWSPAPER OF RECORD: Rioters Decline To Sign Colin Kaepernick.

PROTESTS OVER GEORGE FLOYD DEATH TAKE TENSE TURN IN DOWNTOWN ATLANTA: “Shortly before 5:30 p.m., some type of scuffle happened between a protester and an Atlanta police officer right outside the CNN Center along Centennial Olympic Drive.”

Giant CNN logo in front of building “is being painted with graffiti in Atlanta. The crowd is cheering.”

“Atlanta SWAT is wearing gas masks. The crowd is easily 3,000+ extending north toward Centennial Park. The crowd is facing south toward the new Mercedes Benz stadium & that is the way the police are blocking. The CNN building is the main venue for this demonstration.”

As Stephen Miller tweets, “Frankenstein comes for its creator.”

UPDATE: Atlanta Protestors Graffiti, Smash Windows at CNN Headquarters. “Images and video captured by news networks and social media users showed that some of the spray-painted messages on the logo included ‘no cops,’ ‘f*** Trump’ and ‘#Love.’ CBS 46 in Atlanta reported that though the protest was primarily ‘peaceful’ at the start, one protestor threw a brick at the CNN headquarters’ windows and others threw rocks. Later, protestors threw milk jugs, bricks and water bottles at police cars in front of the headquarters, and at that point, some protestors began running. A police vehicle was also set on fire in front of the headquarters. The Hollywood Reporter has asked CNN for comment.”

Ricochet’s Jon Gabriel tweets, “Can’t wait to see how Stelter blames this on Sean Hannity.”