OUT ON A LIMB: Biden Is Using the Pandemic as an Excuse for Permanent Expansions of Government PowerBiden Is Using the Pandemic as an Excuse for Permanent Expansions of Government Power.

GOODER AND HARDER: N.Y., New Jersey, California Hit Hardest by Biden Tax Changes.

JIMMY KIMMEL WHITESPLAINS RACISM TO TIM SCOTT:

Remember when it was racist for a white person to disagree with a black politician? I’m not sure when that whole phenomenon started, but it had its heyday around… oh, let me look… January 20, 2009, to January 20, 2017. At any point between those two dates, you couldn’t say anything that contradicted and/or criticized a black politician without being informed that you only hated him for the color of his skin. That was the only reason anybody would ever bother to dissent, we were told. Wanted lower taxes? Racist. Didn’t want socialized medicine? Racist. Noticed that William Ayers was a terrorist and Rev. Jeremiah Wright was an anti-Semite? Racist, racist, racist. That was the rule, and it was rigidly enforced by our moral, ethical, and intellectual betters in the press, as well as many of their fellow Democrats.

These days, things are a bit more lax. Not only can a white dude disagree with a black politician, but he can even laugh at a black politician for claiming to know what it’s like to be black in America!

That’s what former comedian Jimmy Kimmel did last night on his talk show, which I don’t watch and neither do you:

Scott is being lectured to on the topic of racism by at least two of the most prominent show business practitioners of blackface, Kimmel, and Joy Behar:

Related, from America’s Newspaper of Record: Dems: ‘If America Isn’t Racist, How Do You Explain These White Hoods We’re Wearing?’

ANALYSIS: TRUE. The Republican Party’s Woke Capital Awakening: The GOP’s future comes in the form of a multiracial working-class political coalition—not in the C-suite.

I DON’T PLAY D & D, BUT THAT’S AMAZING:  Erol Otus – Dungeons and Dragons Artist.

BECAUSE OF COURSE THEY DID:  Giuliani: DOJ Prosecutors ‘Invaded’ His iCloud Account in 2019 While He Was Defending Trump For Impeachment Sham.

CU BOULDER… ONE DOESN’T KNOW WHETHER TO ADMIRE HIS COURAGE OR HIS DEATH WISH:  Professor Lays Groundwork to Sue CU-Boulder for Stripping Him of Duties After Speaking at Trump Rally.

I mean, he spoke at a Trump rally, despite working in Boulder.  Sir, if you read this, I’d like to meet somewhere just to shake your hand. “Brave and crazy” like that is a rare find.

RACCCCCISSSSS, ELEVENTY:  Biden Bans Travel From India Due to COVID Surge Despite Slamming Trump’s Actions in 2020.

GOOD, IF HE STICKS WITH IT:  Joe Manchin Just Says “NO” To D.C. Statehood Legislation.

HE CAN’T FIND HIS MIND, EITHER:  Biden frantic after forgetting he put mask in his pocket.

YOU KNOW, THIS WOULD BE A GREAT TOURIST ATTRACTION:  Stomach-churning pedestrian bridge opens in Portugal.

That is, if they hadn’t gone coco for coco puffs over the covidiocy in a way that makes our own local insanity seem sane.

WELL, SEE, THE PROBLEM IS I DON’T LIVE NEXT TO THE GOVERNOR’S MANSION…  Man erects poop wall after property dispute with neighbor.

YOU’VE GOT TO KNOW HOW TO LISTEN:  Woman credits cat with detecting breast cancer: ‘If only pets could talk’.

PEOPLE FORGET THAT WHISTLEBLOWERS ARE ONLY CREDIBLE DURING GOP ADMINISTRATIONS:  Pentagon whistleblower warns of UFO intelligence failure on ‘level of 9/11’.

YOU KNOW, NORMALLY I’D SAY THIS IS CRAZY, BUT THE TIMES WE’RE LIVING IN… UFOs are real, feds’ cover-up fueled by fear: ex-Pentagon whistleblower.

These are not quite the times that try men’s souls. They’re more the days that make all of us start to believe lizard people conspiracies, simply because they make more sense than the reality we’re stuck in.

FIGHT THE POWER: A Trump supporter infiltrated an Antifa group in Sonoma. “It felt like seeing Antifa getting sort of a pass all the time from government saying they don’t exist, saying that they’re a myth, saying that they’re just an idea. You know, when obviously, they are very real, and they’re a big threat.”

OPEN THREAD: Be here now.

LOOK OUT BELOW: Huge rocket looks set for uncontrolled reentry following Chinese space station launch.

LIFE IN 2021: A rich Democratic woman whitesplaining racism to a Black Republican.

THAT’S NOT THE NARRATIVE: Cancer rates in medieval Britain around ten times higher than previously thought, study suggests. “The first study to use X-rays and CT scans to detect evidence of cancer among the skeletal remains of a pre-industrial population suggests that between 9-14% of adults in medieval Britain had the disease at the time of their death. This puts cancer prevalence in a time before exposure to tumour-inducing chemicals from industry and tobacco at around ten times higher than previously thought, according to researchers.”

BUT IS IT TOO LATE? Is Coke Rethinking Woke? Why the soft-drink giant is pulling back from its left-wing posturing.

Conservatives who are tempted to despair over the abrupt shift of major corporations into engines of left-wing culture war might want to take a look at Coca-Cola. Recent developments suggest that Coke is rethinking woke. . . . On April 10, dozens of corporate chieftains met to consider sanctions against Georgia. Instead, they ended up issuing a vaguely worded statement about voting rights that did not even mention the state. And Coca-Cola, along with fellow Georgian behemoth Delta Air Lines, was conspicuously absent from the list of signatories. Instead, on April 14, the company issued a decidedly conciliatory statement. . . .

Neither Douglas, nor Gayton, nor Coca-Cola is talking to the media about any of this right now, but read the tea leaves: Within a span of three weeks, the company came under public fire from prominent Republicans, swiftly de-escalated its rhetoric on the Georgia law, saw its general counsel hastily resign, and saw his replacement declare a “pause” on his most heavily criticized efforts. It certainly looks as if Coca-Cola has reached a corporate decision to pull back from a partisan and ideological posture that actively antagonized half the country, including the state government of where Coca-Cola is headquartered.

Most big companies do not insert themselves into so many hot-button political debates in such a short span, and not every large company has equally large direct competitors, as Coca-Cola does. But there should be a lesson here for conservatives. Companies may drift into wokeness in order to avoid conflict with the squeaky wheels on Twitter and in the world of left-activism, but they are fundamentally risk-averse. The people pushing Coca-Cola to the left are extremely loud, but there are not really that many of them.

Stand up to the bullies.

Flashback: How to beat the woke: Never apologize, rally friends and punch back harder. “University and corporate bosses give into the woke because it’s painless and easier than fighting them. Make it painful and difficult instead, and they’ll change their ways. Take this to heart. The sane can win.”

WELL, THE GOVERNMENT HASN’T BEEN ENCOURAGING ON THIS FRONT: Poll: Nearly half of vaccine-hesitant Americans worried about side effects.

Plus, the constant yammering that people who have been vaccinated still need to mask and distance has removed incentives, making the calculus kind of one-sided.

Related: The CDC is still repeating its mistakes. “Finally, the CDC guidelines are not just timid and inconsistent. They are late: We’ve known about outdoor transmission being a much lower risk for almost a year now. We should move cautiously, for sure, but excessive caution creates fatigue and mistrust.”

SCIENCE!

MY BODY, MY CHOICE, RIGHT? Not Everyone Wants To Be Vaccinated. I’m OK With That. “If everyone who wishes to be vaccinated is able to do so without logistical or bureaucratic obstacles, then I would regard that as an enormous success. And we are close to reaching that point in the US. Unless the government forcibly compels unwilling people to receive the vaccine, that’s as much as one can reasonably expect.”

Well, the number would be higher if the public health authorities were competent. Telling people they still have to mask and distance even after being vaccinated was a disaster; the unnecessary pause on J&J vaccinations was a debacle.

PJ MEDIA VIP WRAP: Don’t forget that VODKAPUNDIT promo code if you’ve been thinking of joining us.

Stacey Lennox: News on COVID-19 Testing Should Prompt an IMMEDIATE Congressional Investigation. “ In other words, a positive COVID-19 PCR test is not a definitive diagnosis in the absence of a full assessment of the patient and the situation. Yet, in December of 2020, the revision to the CDC guidelines for laboratories still used a Ct of 40 as the threshold to be considered negative.” (That’s a lot of not-sick sick people.)

Tyler O’Neil: Professor Makes a Stunning Admission About How She Trains Future K-12 Teachers. “I mean, it’s all social justice. All day, every day, I get to talk about the things I love. I’m really living the life over here.” (“Social” in front of any word reverses the word’s meaning.)

Yours Truly: What Do You Do with Democrats Who Enjoy Being Accused of Racism? “Imagine for a moment that you’re a well-meaning Democrat. How much of ‘All White People Are Racist’ clips could you get through before jumping on board the Trump Train?” (All of them, apparently.)