BREAKING: FDA Pulls Approval for Dozens of Mask Makers in China. “Tests have shown many imported masks perform far short of N95 filtration standards.”

The Food and Drug Administration said Thursday that it had cut the number of mask makers in China approved to make N95-style masks for domestic use to 14, from around 80. That reversed an April 3 decision to allow the imports from manufacturers whose masks hadn’t been tested by U.S. authorities if they met standards set by some other nations or were reviewed by an independent laboratory.

The shift illustrates the challenge to federal officials who are trying to help fill huge demand for masks from front-line workers battling the coronavirus pandemic, while also ensuring that medical gear works effectively.

“We’ve been using all of our authorities to increase availability,” an FDA official said in an interview. “There were a growing number of respirators that failed to meet the expedited performance standards.”

The move follows a report by The Wall Street Journal that found U.S. regulators and state officials had identified a significant number of imported N95-style masks were falling below standards.

Don’t trust China. China is asshole.

I THOUGHT SHE WAS TOO BUSY AS GOVERNOR OF GEORGIA FOR THIS: Stacey Abrams Laughably Tries a New Tack in Her Desperate Bid for the VP Nod.

BUT TRUMP SAID MEAN THINGS THAT HURT BECAUSE THEY WERE TRUE: Malaysian journalist faces six years in prison over COVID-19 Facebook posts.

BECAUSE OF COURSE SHE DOES: Comrade DeWine Vows to Veto Bill Curtailing Health Director’s ‘Ultimate Authority’ and Limiting Stay-at-Home Orders.

MICHELLE OBAMA: Having kids was a “concession” that cost “my aspirations and dreams.”

ANAYLSIS: TRUE. Gen. Jack Keane: US has ’10-year hole’ to dig out of in dealing with China threat.

IT’S FAR FROM JUST TRUMP AND SOME OF HIS TOP AIDES: Trump and some top aides question accuracy of virus death toll.

THIS DOESN’T SURPRISE ME: Coronavirus Anxiety Costs More Lives Than the Lockdowns Save From COVID-19, Study Finds.

‘MURICA: Cops Appear to Stand Down after Marine Vet Calls Them Out for Harassing Protesters: ‘I’d Rather Lose My Job Than My Soul.’

KEEP TEXAS RED: Anti-Gun Brady PAC Throws Weight, Money Into Texas Races. “House Speaker Nancy Pelosi says Texas is ‘ground zero’ to the 2020 election.”

PIVOT: Trump says coronavirus task force will continue ‘indefinitely,’ shift focus to reopening and vaccines.

Trump took a lot of heat — from the people who give him heat no matter what — for floating the idea of shutting down the task force. But this redirection makes a lot of sense.

KRUISER’S MORNING BRIEF: The One Poll Stat That Has Biden People Sweating. “As we survey this ever-shifting coronavirus landscape here in 2020, Trump supporters should be relieved about this Biden unfavorability news. When that is coupled with an overwhelming voter enthusiasm gap the prospects for the president’s reelection look far better than the rest of the polling would indicate.”

MAKE SOUTHEAST ASIAN NAVAL HARBORS GREAT AGAIN: Will Vietnam Lease Cam Ranh Bay to the United States?

BELIEVE ALL WOMEN PROVIDED IT IS POLITICALLY EXPEDIENT TO DO SO: “Victoria Nourse, who also served as Biden’s chief counsel in 2015, told the Washington Free Beacon by email that Reade’s allegations against Biden don’t ‘make sense’ based on her personal experience with the former vice president. She also pointed to Reade’s ‘changing story’ and said that Biden once saved her when she was sexually harassed by a public official in the early 1990s.”

MAYBE HE OUGHT TO RETHINK A FEW THINGS IN LIGHT OF NEW EVIDENCE: New York Gov. Andrew Cuomo says it’s ‘shocking’ most new coronavirus cases were people who stayed at home.

MORE LIKE THIS, PLEASE: Press Secretary Kayleigh McEnany Reminds Media How They Downplayed Coronavirus Outbreak.

Reuters reporter Jeff Mason asked McEnany, “In a previous life, before you were press secretary, you worked for the campaign and you made a comment, I believe on Fox, in which you said President Trump will not allow the coronavirus to come to this country. Given what has happened since then, obviously, would you like to take that back?”

“I guess I would turn the question back on the media and ask similar questions,” McEnany responded. “Does Vox want to take back that they proclaimed that the coronavirus would not be a deadly pandemic? Does The Washington Post want to take back that they told Americans to get a grip, the flu is bigger than the coronavirus? Does The Washington Post likewise want to take back that our brains are causing us to exaggerate the threat of the coronavirus? Does The New York Times want to take back that fear of the virus maybe spreading faster of than the virus itself? Does NPR want to take back that the flu was a much bigger threat than the coronavirus? And finally once again The Washington Post, would they like to take back that the government should not respond aggressively to the coronavirus?”

Video at the link.

NEWS I HOPE YOU CAN’T USE: An Adult Cam Site Exposed 10.88 Billion Records. “CAM4 has taken the server offline, but not before it leaked 7TB of user data.”

KARENS WITH RIFLES AND RIOT GEAR: Texas Sheriff Raids Bar Protest With Military-Style Assault Vehicle, SWAT Team: Arrests and Outrage Ensue.

LIVE: Exclusive VIP Gold Chat with VodkaPundit, Kruiser, and Bryan Preston – TODAY 3:30pm ET.

COLORADO: Rethinking emergency powers should be high on legislature’s list.

Looks like we are crawling out of our home arrests. Which also means the Colorado legislative season will soon restart, too.

Since some are predicting a resurgence of COVID as the weather grows cold again in the fall, the legislature should learn from our recent experiences and use their prolonged session to adjust our laws for the next potential “emergency.”

Here are three suggestions for the legislature to tackle immediately.

Only elected officials should have emergency powers: Many of us were surprised to learn that unelected bureaucrats had the authority to place us under house arrest.

Before Gov. Polis ordered his statewide lockdown order, the tri-county health department, servicing Adams, Arapahoe and Douglas counties, ordered businesses closed and people locked in their homes. They did so over the objections of elected county commissioners whom they supposedly answer to.

It is unthinkable that under current law technocrats with no direct accountability to the people have such unchecked power. No one who can’t be voted out of office or recalled should have the power to declare emergencies and rip away basic liberties.

We have a Democrat assembly and a Democrat governor, so the odds of reform are minuscule.

BRITAIN: Government scientist Neil Ferguson resigns after breaking lockdown rules to meet his married lover. “Prof Ferguson allowed the woman to visit him at home during the lockdown while lecturing the public on the need for strict social distancing.”

I LIKE THE CUT OF HIS JIB: 5-year-old boy caught driving on Utah highway was heading to California for a Lamborghini.

DON’T YOU LOVE A HAPPY ENDING? Lamborghini owner offers ride to 5-year-old who stole parents’ SUV.

INSANE: Cancer Treatments on Hold: The Invisible Health Costs of the Shutdown. “We’ve put such a scare into people, that the Wuhan Virus is causing people to miss out on cancer treatments, emergency medicine, etc. — as though we never did flatten the curve.”

WELL, THEY SHOULD BE: The Chinese government is worried global anti-China sentiment is at its highest since Tiananmen Square.

The think tank’s research was reportedly presented in early April to top Chinese Communist Party officials, including President Xi Jinping. Reuters’ report is based off sources who have direct knowledge of the findings, though the news outlet has not seen the briefing itself. If reports of its contents are accurate, it would at least confirm Beijing is taking the backlash seriously, though Reuters notes it’s unclear if those concerns will ultimately influence policy.

The paper reportedly concluded the rising anti-China sentiment is in part a result of American efforts to undermine public confidence in Beijing amid the crisis.

That last line is a real tell of just how deep the Communist regime is stuck in its own head, as Communist regimes usually are. What Beijing forgets, or can’t allow itself to understand, is that it was easy for the West to sweep Tianneman and a few thousand dead Chinese under the rug as there was all that money still to be made. It’s much more difficult to do that after years of getting ripped off by the PRC and when the dead are in our own countries.

COLD WAR II: U.S. rearms to nullify China’s missile supremacy.

The Pentagon intends to arm its Marines with versions of the Tomahawk cruise missile now carried on U.S. warships, according to the White House budget requests for 2021 and Congressional testimony in March of senior U.S. military commanders. It is also accelerating deliveries of its first new long-range anti-ship missiles in decades.

In a statement to Reuters about the latest U.S. moves, Beijing urged Washington to “be cautious in word and deed,” to “stop moving chess pieces around” the region, and to “stop flexing its military muscles around China.”

The U.S. moves are aimed at countering China’s overwhelming advantage in land-based cruise and ballistic missiles. The Pentagon also intends to dial back China’s lead in what strategists refer to as the “range war.” The People’s Liberation Army (PLA), China’s military, has built up a huge force of missiles that mostly outrange those of the U.S. and its regional allies, according to senior U.S. commanders and strategic advisers to the Pentagon, who have been warning that China holds a clear advantage in these weapons.

And, in a radical shift in tactics, the Marines will join forces with the U.S. Navy in attacking an enemy’s warships. Small and mobile units of U.S. Marines armed with anti-ship missiles will become ship killers.

Remember Obama’s “pivot to Asia” that turned out to be a nothingburger with a side of zerofries? These new moves are the real deal.