DON’T TRUST CHINA. CHINA IS ASSHOLE: China Never Reported Existence of Coronavirus to World Health Organization. “WHO backtracks on original claim that China self-reported, admits this never happened.”

Can’t trust WHO much these days, either.

UNEXPECTEDLY: Beijing appoints tough-talking party official Zheng Yanxiong to lead powerful new agency in Hong Kong. “Zheng Yanxiong, known for his hardline approach to handling protests in Guangdong, chosen to head the Beijing office in Hong Kong.”

JON CALDERA: Cancel culture feeling its oats; stop feeding it.

What happened to those liberals who were appalled by book-burnings and McCarthy-era blacklisting?

They are now silent as the Cancel Culture feeds on an orgy of being perpetually offended and demanding destruction of all that is an affront to the new enlightened sensibilities.

There is a direct line from the years of our complacent acceptance of college speech codes, cancelling conservative speakers on campus, de-platforming conservative voices online, the PC police language enforcement in media, schools and entertainment to the wide-spread intolerance violently playing out on our streets today.

The progressives who run the institutions that form our culture (media, entertainment and education) have instilled the value that if you find something offensive or hurtful it is your duty to rip it down, stifle it, berate it until it is wiped away.

The golden, classical liberal value of tolerance has turned into the progressive mandate for re-education.

Read the whole thing.

GLEICHSCHALTUNG: Fox Sports 1’s Marcellus Wiley Unloads on NBA Plan to Paint ‘Black Lives Matter’ on Courts.

How about a compromise where the NBA goes with “Hong Kong Lives Matter” instead?

THE GREAT REOPENING: Judge Nukes Ill. Lockdown: Pritzker ‘Had No Authority’ to Restrict Movement and Close Businesses.

#RESIST: Hong Kong activists discuss ‘parliament-in-exile’ after China crackdown.

HE’S LOSING IT: Biden Trots Out Small Business Owner Who Got Thousands in Gov’t Assistance to Argue Trump Isn’t Helping Small Business.

COOL: Trump Administration to Kickstart 200 High-Tech Towers for Virtual Border Wall.

KRUISER’S MORNING BRIEF: Time for Trump 2020 to Bring Steve Bannon Out of Mothballs. “It’s not that I am in a dead panic about Trump’s chances. It’s still early from an election year perspective and, as I have written more than once, I’m rather skeptical of the polls. I just feel that the campaign at present is oozing ennui — a subject I’m going to explore more in a column that will post later today. The Bannon touch could inject a little life into this listless organization.”

SIGN OF THE TIMES: Samsung is selling a wireless charger that also sterilizes your phone.

GOOD: Another experimental covid-19 vaccine has shown promising early results.

FAUXCAHONTAS: White voters find this Democrat least acceptable as a Biden VP pick.

A new poll indicates Democratic voters are most excited about the prospect of Kamala Harris being tapped as Joe Biden’s running mate, but are wary of Elizabeth Warren being chosen.

While 38 percent of Democrats overall found Warren an “acceptable” choice and 27 percent were “excited” about the idea, 19 percent found her to be a “not acceptable” choice, the highest negative rating of any of the 11 candidates listed.

The negative views rose among white voters. The USA Today/Suffolk University poll showed 23 percent of white voters found Warren to be a “not acceptable” choice, while that number was 19 percent among Hispanic voters and 13 percent among black voters.

Flashback to your Friendly Neighborhood VodkaPundit in May: It’s Kamala Harris, Isn’t It?

HMM: Trump Might Have Buyer’s Regret Over Jared Kushner’s Policy Advice.

HEAVEN IS HIGH AND THE EMPEROR IS FAR AWAY: China’s Brutal Crackdown on Hong Kong Exposes the Communist Party’s Greatest Weakness.

BUT THE NARRATIVE! Seattle Mayor Admits CHOP Antifastan Caused Crime Wave, ‘Alarming’ Spike in COVID Cases.

DR. FRANCIS COLLINS: A Long Talk With Anthony Fauci’s Boss About the Pandemic, Vaccines, and Faith.

I am guardedly optimistic that by the end of 2020 we will have at least one vaccine that has been proven safe and effective in a large-scale trial. Nobody should accept it as safe and effective without that large-scale trial. There are at least four vaccines that will be getting into such large trials this summer beginning as early as July. Each one of those trials will involve roughly 30,000 volunteers, half of whom will get the vaccine, half of whom will get a dummy placebo. You have to have that control or you will never know if the vaccine worked or not.

Those trials will have to be conducted in areas where the virus is actively spreading because that’s the only way you’re going to know whether it was protective. With four different vaccines with four different approaches, we’ve kind of hedged our bets against putting too much emphasis on one particular strategy. That’s good — because vaccines are really interesting science, but every new virus presents surprises in terms of how the vaccine turns out to work. So I’d be very worried right now if we had one platform that everybody was counting on. Having four makes me feel a lot better.

Maybe all four of them will work. As long as one of them works, we’ll be in a far better position by the end of the year to see our way out of this global pandemic mess. But there will be, then, a time of having to do the scale-up to have billions of doses, which might be what the world needs. So there will still be some time involved, even though we are doing everything possible to prepare for that by manufacturing millions of doses of each of those vaccines even before we know if they would work, so that the highest-risk people can get access right away. So I’m guardedly optimistic that we will see all that happen.

I’d add a “Faster, please,” except that they’ve been making remarkably fast progress already.

BUT HOW MANY WILL SHOW UP? Parents Everywhere Agree: Reopen Schools — IMMEDIATELY!

MATT MARGOLIS: Susan Rice Accidentally Proved Barack Obama (Not Trump) Is Guilty of Dereliction of Duty.

CANCELED: Harvard Grad Who Threatened to Stab Those Who Say ‘All Lives Matter’ Fired by Deloitte.

WELL, THAT’S A TAKE: CHOP Made Seattle Look Like a Real City. “What made Seattle a real city for a moment is now being returned to what makes it not a city. Clean, privatized surfaces and middle-class respect of property. And indeed we can say that this is what really triggered the downfall of CHOP, Durkan’s strong middle-class attachment to property, particularly her own.”

When the progressive left says they reject middle-class values, they mean it.

DECOUPLING: Colorado on cutting edge to reduce China’s rare earth element domination.

YUGE: Florida Sheriff Threatens to Deputize All Local Gun Owners to Put Down Riots.

UNEXPECTEDLY! Russians Voters Approve Plan To Extend Putin’s Rule Until 2036.

DAVID HARSANYI: The Left’s Coronavirus Narrative Is a Myth. “Most nations that have done better than the United States in this regard (sans Germany) are far smaller, and have an easier time containing spread by shutting down borders; or are more authoritarian, with the kind of pliant populations and governments that some U.S. pundits seem to desire.”

Never let a crisis go to waste.

KRUISER’S MORNING BRIEF: Joe Biden’s VP Pick Is Going to Be a Trainwreck, and President If He Wins. “The Democrats’ penchant for prioritizing diversity over all else may just be what wins re-election for President Trump. We still need to ponder worst-case scenarios, however.”

You might want to grab a fresh cup of coffee, or perhaps heroin, before clicking.