KINSLEY GAFFE: Coronavirus was ‘best thing that ever happened’ to Biden, key aide says in book.

COVID-19 was the best thing that could have happened to Joe Biden’s presidential campaign, according to one of his closest advisers.

A new book revealed that Anita Dunn made the comment in private to “an associate,” according to the Guardian, which obtained a copy, at a time when the United States was struggling with rising death tolls, a shattered economy, and a health system close to breaking.

The details are contained in Lucky: How Joe Biden Barely Won the Presidency by Jonathan Allen and Amie Parnes. It is the first major book on the 2020 election and is due to be published on March 2.

It describes how Dunn said, “COVID is the best thing that ever happened to him,” in comments the authors suggested “campaign officials believed but would never say in public.”

To be fair, Anita Dunn has long been a fan of the CCP and its deadly byproducts.

OR MAYBE LONGER: Microbes from Earth could temporarily survive on Mars.

THOSE #METOO TORPEDOES WERE SUPPOSED TO TAKE OUT TRUMP, NOT CIRCLE AROUND AND NAIL OUR PEOPLE! My story of working with Governor Cuomo.

Exit quote: “Let’s play strip poker.”

VODKAPUNDIT PRESENTS YOUR DAILY INSANITY WRAP: Massive Increase in Carjackings Forces Chicago to… Ban a Videogame?

Insanity Wrap needs to know: If it’s malpractice to treat the symptom instead of the disease, what’s it called when you mistreat something that isn’t even a symptom?

Answer: Democratic governance in action.

Before we get to the sordid details, a quick preview of today’s Wrap.

• Porkulus II: Spending Boogaloo
• Ta-Nehisi Coates explains what is and isn’t offensive and got it right –a decade ago.
• We’re killing ourselves staying safe from COVID-19

Bonus Sanity: College kids understand that free college isn’t.

And so much more at the link, you’d have to be crazy to miss it.

AMAZON’S WHOPPER OF A MORAL FAILURE: Instapundit (and others) have been keeping an eye on the increasing appetite for censorship, of course, with “censorship” classically defined as State action. But an exclusive report by JustTheNews.com underscores the fact that the people behind these state actors are doubling down to silence dissent any way they can. The report says:

“Sometime before this week, when it removed from its digital shelves a book critical of transgender ideology, Amazon altered its content policy to explicitly forbid books that promote “hate speech,” a major rule change that could be used to rationalize action against a broader range of books sold by the digital retail giant.”

This is problematic on so many levels.  With no notice, Amazon this week yanked “When Harry Became Sally: Responding to the Transgender Movement” by Ryan Anderson, a well-respected philosopher and writer. When JustTheNews contacted Amazon, they merely referred to their “hate speech policy.” JustTheNews uncovered that Amazon has stealthily modified their alleged “policy”:

“Internet archives show that as recently as August of last year, Amazon’s book content policy did not include any mention of “hate speech.” At that time, the company stated only that “we reserve the right not to sell certain content, such as pornography or other inappropriate content.”

We have long heard “hate speech” defined downward and diluted to a meaningless standard that basically says “I find this offensive” or “this challenges my enforced orthodoxy.” There are at least two problems with this.

First, the goalposts are moved by political interest groups who have influence over companies like Amazon. Here, Anderson’s book was labelled “hate speech” by the LGBTQ community because — based on research — the book calmly criticized the notion of “gender fluidity” that has become the accepted wisdom by the elite editorial class. The book did not call for stripping people of rights or respect: it was merely scientific inquiry. Calling scientific inquiry “hate speech” is problematic, and has a chilling effect on future efforts to question the status quo.

Secondly, the hypocrisy proven by the moving goalposts ought to trouble any classical liberal. Legally, Amazon has the right to choose what books it will or won’t sell. But it’s a whopper of a moral failure. Especially given that Amazon still sells “Who Do They Say I Am: The Vindication of Minister Louis Farrakhan“, the thesis of which is “a blistering attack of malicious propaganda coming from the American media, Jewish groups, and the U.S. government.” There go the Jews, again. I thought we had moved on to space lasers, but I never got the memo.

Levity aside, the second problem is compounded by the people behind — or at least accountable — for these decisions. Amazon’s founder, Jeff Bezos proudly proclaims that “Democracy Dies in Darkness” on the banner of his Washington Post. It has less meaning than ever when the same ownership shuts writers up or demonitizes their work. An intelligent, influential man and political contributor like Bezos ought to know better.

Does anyone at either Amazon or The Washington Post have the guts to tell him?

WELL, GOOD: Pfizer, Moderna say they’re ramping up COVID-19 vaccine production.

ANALYSIS: TRUE. ‘Never Before Has The Leader Of The Free World Been So Cognitively Compromised.’

WALTER OLSON: House Democrats Go Fox Hunting: There is no ‘fake news’ exception to the First Amendment.

PHILIP K. HOWARD: Out of control: Why public employee unions don’t serve the public’s best interests.

RIP: Lawrence Ferlinghetti, celebrated Beat poet and publisher, dies aged 101.

BY ANY MEANS FAIR OR FOUL: California Democrats Plan to Use Political Tricknology to Save Governor Gavin Newsom From Recall.

THE ADMINISTRATION IS HIGHLY SELECTIVE ABOUT COVID-19 RISKS AND RESPONSES: Harlingen begins sheltering Central American migrants; shelter finds 8 positive for COVID-19.

Central American migrants are beginning to stop at a city shelter as they seek asylum in the United States.

Last week, the U.S. Border Patrol began releasing migrants to Loaves and Fishes, which is testing them for the coronavirus while sheltering them as they travel into the United States, Bill Reagan, the shelter’s executive director, said Monday.

“I don’t know how many people it’s going to be or how long it’s going to last,” he said of migrant influx coming out of Honduras, Guatemala and El Salvador. “Our plan is to test everyone who comes.” . . .

Last Thursday, the Border Patrol released 49 migrants to the shelter, which found eight positive for the virus, Reagan said.

For now, grant money is covering the cost of testing, he said.

While his staff took the eight migrants infected with virus to hotel rooms, the rest stayed in cots in the shelter’s lobby, he said.

Then on Friday, Border Patrol agents released 26 migrants to Loaves and Fishes at about 5 p.m., leaving the shelter’s staff without time to test them for the virus, he said, adding workers booked the groups into about 20 hotel rooms.

By Monday, the migrants had checked out of the hotel rooms, he said.

Not exactly quarantining. Plus:

During the meeting, Commissioner Richard Uribe expressed concern migrants infected with the virus could enter the general population.

In response, Assistant City Manager Gabriel Gonzalez said officials could not require migrants infected with the coronavirus to quarantine.

“We can’t control where they go,” Uribe said. “They can just leave, and they’ll be positive.”

They only seem to care about controlling where Americans go and what Americans do. And that’s okay because reasons.

ORBITAL ENERGY, CLEAN AND SAFE: CNN exclusive: A solar panel in space is collecting energy that could one day be beamed to anywhere on Earth.

Pretty sure Elon plans to start deploying this around 2025.

WOW: North Korea Defector Swims To South, Evading Border Guards For 6 Hours.

The Feb. 16 incident marks a second embarrassing breach in recent months of the heavily fortified Demilitarized Zone, after another North Korean man claiming to be a former gymnast jumped over a fence in the DMZ and went undetected by South Korean guards for 14 hours in November.

On Tuesday, military officials in Seoul detailed the latest crossing, acknowledging that the unidentified man was captured on video 10 times before he was finally noticed by guards and apprehended.

Wearing a diving suit and flippers, the man swam at night in the East Sea — also known as the Sea of Japan — coming ashore at 1:05 a.m. about 3.2 kilometers (2 miles) inside South Korean territory, said the report, released by the South’s Joint Chiefs of Staff, according to Yonhap news agency.

He then hid his suit and fins and, unnoticed by guards at a border observation post, entered a drainage conduit that went under barbed wire lining the beach, the report said.

“He presumably had swum for about six hours, wearing a padded jacket inside a diving suit and fins. His clothing appeared to have kept him warm and allowed him to stay afloat,” an unnamed JCS officer told Yonhap. “The tidal current at that time also helped him come south.”

Welcome to freedom.

WHO SHOT ASHLI BABBITT? With Ashli Babbitt Killing Shrouded in Mystery, Capitol Officer Who Shot Her Is in Hiding for His Own Safety.

All told, seven people died in connection with the U.S. Capitol riot on Jan. 6. But only Ashli Babbitt’s death was directly caused by violence that day. She was a rioter killed by a Capitol Police officer, who fired the only shot by any person during the 4½-hour siege. Yet the story of who he is and why he opened fire remains shrouded in mystery.

More than six weeks after Babbitt succumbed to a single gunshot wound to the upper chest, authorities are keeping secret the identity of the officer who fired the fatal round. They won’t release his name, and the major news media aren’t clamoring for it, in stark contrast to other high-profile police shootings of unarmed civilians.

I don’t see why government officials who kill people in the course of their employment should get to stay anonymous. And the lack of transparency on this — the killing of an unarmed protester, which is the sort of thing that usually provokes riots in America — is disgraceful.

And the notion that statements like “Justice for Ashli Babbitt” or “We are Ashli Babbitt” are somehow seditious or threatening, when such statements have been standard fare in dozens of other police shootings of unarmed victims, is dishonest and cruel. Plus:

Most of the circumstances that led to his actions are still unclear. But video footage filmed by rioters shows the lieutenant, after taking up a defensive position in a doorway, carefully aiming and shooting Babbitt as she tries to climb through a smashed window beside a barricaded double door leading to the Speaker’s Lobby, part of a pro-Trump mob of protesters. Babbitt, 35, had no weapon. She died later at a hospital. The decorated Air Force veteran, who had traveled from San Diego, was wearing a Trump flag as a cape when she was shot.

Dressed in a dark suit and white shirt with cufflinks, along with a beaded bracelet on his right shooting hand, the Capitol Police officer fired at her from the side of the barricade, where he had been hidden from view in a doorway. At least from what can be seen and heard from the video, he appears to issue no commands to stop nor any verbal warning that he would shoot.

How would the press be playing it if this had been a Black Lives Matter protest? They certainly wouldn’t be giving the officer the benefit of the doubt. And I suspect his name would have leaked out.

REPORT: Fry’s Electronics permanently closes nationwide. The Bay Area’s KRON4 reports:

KRON4 has confirmed famed Bay Area retailer Fry’s Electronics is closing its doors permanently.

The company is expected to post closure information on its website early Wednesday morning.

Fry’s has more than two dozen stores mainly across California and Texas.

Developing.

The San Jose Mercury reports: North San Jose tech campus could sprout at Fry’s site. “Seven office buildings could sprout in north San Jose, creating a huge new tech hub on the site of a long-time Fry’s Electronics store, according to detailed new plans filed with city officials.”

A month ago, SF Gate waxed nostalgic on “The disappearing history of the Bay Area’s themed Fry’s Electronics stores.”

UPDATE (11:30 am): It’s official. This is the message on Fry’s Website:

AP’s headline is “Funky electronics chain Fry’s is no more,” a headline that has mixed connotations, given Fry’s often low reputation for customer service.

(Updated and bumped.)

SICK: Biden HHS Nominee Defended Subjecting Kids to Chemical Castration.

THE LAST CASSETTE PLAYER STANDING:

As with the playback equipment, many tape recipes have been lost. A piece of inexpensive consumer-grade technology, so recently manufactured cheaply and at scale, is proving difficult to reinvent. This may all amount to an interesting story about a nostalgia-inducing product. But it also illustrates the workings of the economy the world has built—or, perhaps more accurately, that nobody in particular has built. No man can make a pencil. And, it turns out, no man can make a cassette player either.

It’s a fascinating article on a technology once ubiquitous, that’s now on its last legs, propped up by manufacturing in “China’s Guangdong province, [which] takes hold of dead technologies and reanimates them in a cheap but serviceable manner.” If you transferred your vinyl LPs to cassette to avoid scratches, and/or made mix tapes in the ’70s and pre-CD ’80s, read the whole thing.

MOORE’S GONNA NEED A BIGGER LAW: A quantum computer just solved a decades-old problem three million times faster than a classical computer.

UPDATE (FROM GLENN): This is bad news for encryption that depends on brute-force calculations being prohibitively difficult.

WHY ARE UNIVERSITIES SUCH CESSPITS OF RACIAL BIGOTRY? Student columnist calls white peers returning to campus an ‘invasive species.’

JAMES LILEKS ON THE HELLSCAPE THAT IS TWITTER:

It’s not just ablist, it’s deeply ablist. Profoundly ablist.

No one disputes there are different ways of learning. Perhaps the author of this tweet is outraged because the previous tweet suggests a hierarchy of modes.

* * * * * * * *

Learning happens in multiple ways and who are we to deny a pathway? To say otherwise suggests a hierarchy among the Differences. Hierarchies reinforce power and privilege, since the only reason anyone stresses the objective is to suppress other modes, because of race.

It all seems horrifically condescending. It all seems an attempt to elevate intellectual modalities for the sole purpose of conspicuously agreeing with them as a means of establishing your moral character.

All that has nothing to do with this piece about the the awfulness of modern architecture, but it’s connected.

Read the whole thing. Exit quote: “Some generations pass the torch. Others dunk it in a barrel of water — and then wonder why everything is cold and dark.”

OUCH: AP Reporter Destroys Biden Spox for Trying to Take Credit for Trump Policy.

HIGHER EDUCATION BUBBLE UPDATE: Academics called breastfeeding ‘ethically problematic’ because it endorses ‘gender roles.’ Their view is gaining traction.

WITH APLOMB: How Starlink Is About To Disrupt The Telecommunications Sector.

Starlink’s evolution very interesting: on the one hand, it is leveraging SpaceX’s rocket launch missions, a company that has managed to systematically lower the cost and entry barriers for putting satellites into orbit (it can launch up to 60 satellites at a time, or even use them to fill idle capacity on other missions). At the same time, it has created its own satellite technology, making them much cheaper, more efficient, and with a very low failure rate. But above all, it aims to create an infrastructure that can be used anywhere in the world, simply by offering it through a web page, without the need for too much development of corporate infrastructure in each market: the antennas can be installed independently, and the service can be provided with almost no need to deploy teams of people to provide backup.

Musk is also learning how to operate the satellite constellation he’ll need for communications on his eventual Mars colonies.

JOEL KOTKIN: Economic Civil War. “The schism is between two ways of making a living, one based in the incorporeal world of media and digital transactions, the other in the tangible world of making, growing, and using real things.”