SHAMELESS: Andrew Cuomo Says He Feels ‘Vindicated’ and Won’t Rule Out a Political Comeback.

IT’S MORE LIKE “AT LEAST” THAN “UP TO.” COVID infection may boost antibodies for up to 20 months.

They go out of their way to say this may not keep you from getting infected — they don’t want people to think they don’t need the vaccine, it’s clear — but in fact Covid immunity seems to be more about T- and B-cell activity than antibodies anyway. I suspect there’s so much focus on antibodies mostly because they’re easier to measure.

GOOD: Jill Biden says $109 billion community college program off table.

At least for now, everything is off the table for Build Back Bolshevik.

GOVERNOR OF GEORGIA REALLY FAILING HER CONSTITUENCY: More Unreleased Stacey Abrams Maskless School Photos.

HMM: Chimps in Gabon national park use insects for wound healing, video shows.

SEGREGATION NOW, SEGREGATION TOMORROW, SEGREGATION FOREVER: BIPOC only charter school to open in Portland.

Michael Graham wrote Redneck Nation as a warning, not a how-to guide for leftist educators.

VIDEO: Russell Brand Lights Up Brian Stelter with Hilarious Impression.

I’M TRYING TO DONATE FRIDAY, IF I CAN WORK IT AROUND MY MOM’S MEDICAL APPOINTMENTS. Red Cross faces worst blood shortage in a decade.

BLUE CITY BLUES: 77 percent of Baltimore high school students reading at elementary or kindergarten level.

THIS IS CNN:

The most busted name in news pic.twitter.com/lT5uLgMmPe

— Daily Wire (@realDailyWire) February 8, 2022

Via Jim Treacher, who writes, “I don’t know who at the Daily Wire edited the following clip together, but Ben Shapiro should give him or her a big raise.”

BEGUN, THE BACKPEDALING HAS: CNN medical expert: “The science has changed” on mandatory masking in schools. “For some Democrats, though, it’ll never change. The Guardian reports on liberals in Virginia who are mortified that Glenn Youngkin wants to give parents the right to opt their kid out of the state’s school mask mandate.”

Plus: “I’ll leave you with this fascinating poll result from Axios which captures the policy dilemma for American politicians. As you’d expect, the less restrictive options here carry much more Republican support than Democratic while it’s vice versa for the more restrictive ones. Fully a third of Dems want to increase mask mandates and vaccine requirements, says Axios, even though the country is exhausted with COVID to its marrow and may be enduring an exit wave from the pandemic. Imagine being a Democratic governor in a purple state trying to navigate these political waters.” I’ll start imagining it as soon as the popcorn is ready.

ADVANTAGE: INSTAPUNDIT. Mysterious Link Between Vitamin D And COVID-19 Reaffirmed in ‘Striking’ New Findings. “Israeli scientists said they found ‘striking’ differences in the chances of getting seriously ill from COVID-19 when they compared patients who had sufficient vitamin D levels prior to contracting the disease, with those who didn’t.”

Flashback: Prediction: The Wuhan coronavirus will turn out to be a disease primarily of Vitamin D deficiency and obesity.

Also: Vitamin D: Deficiency May Increase Coronavirus Infection Risk.

And: It is time to take seriously the link between Vitamin D deficiency and more serious Covid-19 symptoms.

How many lives could have been saved if, at the outset, governments encouraged people to take 2000 units a day of Vitamin D? But even suggesting that — despite ample evidence early on — got you treated like a crackpot. Because what’s in it for anyone if people take Vitamin D?

AS I RECALL FROM 2020, BLOCKING ROADS IS A VIRTUALLY SACRED ACTIVITY: Canadian truckers shut down busiest border crossing in North America, back up Detroit roads. “The Freedom Convoy of truckers left Vancouver for Ottawa on Jan. 23 to protest the federal government’s vaccine mandates for cross-border truckers and is calling for an end to coronavirus restrictions. The convoy reached Ottawa last weekend, and protests have since spread to other areas of Canada.”

No doubt political leaders will praise their bravery and devotion to justice. Plus, the first comment on this story: “This is great- we need to support these truckers because they are on the right side of history.”

UPDATE: I guess Robert Reich supports the Canadian truckers:

ANOTHER UPDATE: Trudeau facing defections from his own party. All together now: “The people, united, will never be defeated!” “No justice, no peace!”

VODKAPUNDIT PRESENTS YOUR WEEKLY INSANITY WRAP: Facebook’s Faceplant, Zuck Threatens to Cut Off Europe After HUGE Losses.

Plus:

• Video: Demonic possession comes to the border crisis
• Prepare for every Democrat in American do the Triple Lindy over COVID
• Wall Streeter wants to ban individuals from owning stocks

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

RICHARD FERNANDEZ: Can Politicians Quit the Power Habit? “For some, an end to the pandemic signals the closing of a once-in-a-lifetime opportunity to remake the world…When the history of the Covid-19 pandemic is written, the names of many drugs — Paxlovid, fluvoxamine, sotrovimab —  will be mentioned. But the account will be incomplete if the distorting effect of the most powerful and addictive drug of all, political power, is omitted. The public, out of fear, gave politicians enormous power. What we’re about to see, the world over, is whether they can take it back.”

THE LONG MARCH: Red State Public Schools Encourage Kids To Go Transgender Behind Their Parents’ Backs. “A new report finds systemic racism, sexual obscenity, and anti-Americanism in U.S. public education, even in a deeply red state.”

WELL, GAWKER: Here’s the Big Nugget in Gawker’s Story About Kyrsten Sinema. It’s Beyond Pathetic. “Gawker is scum. Its people are scum. Period. I never thought I’d be rooting this hard for a Democrat, but I hope Sinema survives all the challenges and gets re-elected. The re-election of Sinema, a Democrat, is apparently now a triggering event for liberals. What a messy, unhinged, and immoral philosophy we tolerate with these people.”

CORRUPTION CAN’T BUY HAPPINESS: Crabby, Maskless Obama Tours His Controversial Hawaiian Waterfront Mansion.

BEST SELLER IN EMERGENCY MEDICINE: The Survival Medicine Handbook: The Essential Guide for When Help is NOT on the Way. #CommissionEarned

REVEALED: How Obama and Biden laid groundwork for Afghanistan disaster.

As his hasty Afghanistan exit looms larger as a strategic blunder, President Biden is still blaming his predecessor for the debacle, arguing the former President Trump tied his hands.

It’s Trump’s fault, the administration insists, that Afghanistan has collapsed into a pre-9/11 narco-terrorist state run by medieval mullahs brutalizing women all over again.

“The last president signed an agreement to get out,” Biden reminded reporters during last month’s marathon White House press conference.

But the truth is, it was the other way around. . . . Biden had advocated withdrawing from Afghanistan when he served as President Obama’s vice president. The White House shared a common goal with the Taliban in ending the war, concerned as it was that the long troop deployment looked like the “occupation” of a Muslim nation. And Biden’s then-national security adviser — Antony “Tony” Blinken — spearheaded an effort to achieve that goal, which included as its centerpiece a once-covert plan to spring from the Guantanamo Bay terrorist prison basically the entire old leadership of the Taliban captured by U.S. forces after the 9/11 attacks.

They never met a foreign enemy they wanted to beat, or a domestic enemy they wouldn’t wage all out war against.

COVID IS OVER:

What’s funny and/or strange about this is that Lieu’s chart ends with October, before omicron hit. It’s almost as though he’s so desperate to end restrictions that he’ll post anything.

Or as Ian Miles Cheong tweeted, “Polling must be really bad for Ted Lieu, of all people, to call for the recognition of natural immunity and an end to restrictions.”

THE DEMAND FOR RACISM IN AMERICA FAR EXCEEDS THE SUPPLY, DRAWING INFERIOR SUBSTITUTES INTO THE MARKET: Hoax alert: Black Illinois student criminally charged for racist notes. “Illinois law enforcement announced Friday that Kaliyeha Clark-Mabins, a black female college student, will be charged with three counts of disorderly conduct for filing a false police report. . . . The notes said ‘DIE BITCH’ and ‘BLACK PEOPLE DON’T BELONG’ according to charging documents provided to The Fix by the Madison County State’s Attorney office. . . . “The investigation included not just the campus police, but the “Madison County State’s Attorney’s Office and the U.S. Secret Service,” the email said. The investigation cleared two white students falsely accused of involvement, Amanda Jerome and Jimmi Thull.”

RICHARD FERNANDEZ: Can Politicians Quit the Power Habit? “To estimate the chances of the contenders, the strategic question to ask is: on whose side are time and trends? Will there be more Denmarks (which just lifted Covid restrictions), more Joe Rogans, more unseen protesters — or fewer of them? A few posts back I predicted there will be more of them because the potential energy stored up in the last two years of restrictions and mandates had to unwind. And when it unwound there will be considerable political heat and energy.”

HIGHER EDUCATION BUBBLE UPDATE: Yale professor claims Hitler never saw Jews as an ‘inferior race.’

So it’s starting to look as if, according to received woke wisdom now, everyone is a racist except for Hitler. I have to admit I never saw that one coming.

DON’T TRUST CHINA, CHINA IS ASSHOLE: ‘Transparent hostage situation’: Chilling detail in photo of a smiling Peng Shuai ‘is all you need to know about Peng Shuai’s ‘interviews.”