JustOneMinute

John Tierney Blasts Lockdowns, Masks, Media Panic-Mongering, And More

The iconoclastic John Tierney blasts the scientific community and the media for promoting COVID panic and ideological conformity while abandoning science in favor of masks and lockdowns. He's silent on vaccines, however.

Saturday Morning!

DACA on the ropes, again.

Back In The Wuhan Labs...

Per CNN, Team Biden is giving the lab leak a serious look, although no one is leaking stories of compelling new evidence:

Washington (CNN)Senior Biden administration officials overseeing an intelligence review into the origins of the coronavirus now believe the theory that the virus accidentally escaped from a lab in Wuhan is at least as credible as the possibility that it emerged naturally in the wild -- a dramatic shift from a year ago, when Democrats publicly downplayed the so-called lab leak theory.

Still, more than halfway into President Joe Biden's renewed 90-day push to find answers, the intelligence community remains firmly divided over whether the virus leaked from the Wuhan lab or jumped naturally from animals to humans in the wild, multiple sources familiar with the probe told CNN.

 

Meanwhile, the head of WHO said the lab leak hypothesis is still on the table and is asking China to be a teensy bit more forthcoming. Fun quote:

 

“I was a lab technician myself, I’m an immunologist, and I have worked in the lab, and lab accidents happen,” Tedros said.

 

 

Sporting Sunday

Lots to watch.

Kandahar Collapse

Our withdrawal from Afghanistan is going as expected.

A Tesla Autopilot Lawsuit

The short video of a Tesla rear-ending a pickup truck that was changing lanes shows you can automate Stupid. The Tesla was whizzing down the open lane of a multi-lane highway, blowing the doors off drivers on both his right and left. The pickup truck wanted to move into the lane where traffic was flowing, signaled a lane change to his right, and... boom. The Tesla driving system only slowed a fraction of a second before the crash. A kid in the pickup was not wearing a seat belt, and died.

But sudden lane changes are hardly unusual when traffic is messed up. Rocketing by people as if they are sure to look out for you is a terrible idea, even if done autonomously.

MORE: Video of crash starts at 30 sec. mark in this Fox News coverage.

Independence Plus One

Enjoy the last of the long weekend!

And in the Ongoing Weirdness file: the vaccines that came out of Operation Warp Speed seem like an obvious Trump win. But Republicans aren't exactly celebrating it that way.

Saturday Action

Away we go again.

Tucker Carlson vs. The NSA

I have a hard time taking Tucker Carlson seriously, but who knows?

Allahpundit at Hot Air:

NSA: We never targeted Tucker Carlson's communications with an eye to getting him kicked off the air

Bill Cosby Freed From Prison?

OK, wow. 

Bill Cosby freed from prison after sex assault conviction overturned by court

PHILADELPHIA - Bill Cosby has been freed from prison after Pennsylvania’s highest court overturned his sexual assault conviction.

The Pennsylvania Supreme Court threw out Bill Cosby's sexual assault conviction and opened the way for his immediate release from prison Wednesday in a stunning reversal of fortune for the comedian once known as "America's Dad," ruling that the prosecutor who brought the case was bound by his predecessor's agreement not to charge Cosby.

Cosby, 83, has served more than two years of a three- to 10-year sentence after being found guilty of drugging and violating Temple University sports administrator Andrea Constand at his suburban Philadelphia home in 2004. He was the first celebrity tried and convicted in the #MeToo era.

The former "Cosby Show" star was arrested in 2015, when a district attorney armed with newly unsealed evidence -- the comic's damaging deposition testimony in a lawsuit brought by Constand -- brought charges against him days before the 12-year statute of limitations ran out.

But the Pennsylvania Supreme Court said that District Attorney Kevin Steele, who made the decision to arrest Cosby, was obligated to stand by his predecessor's promise not to charge Cosby. There was no evidence that promise was ever put in writing.

 

Herschel Walker Running?

This oughta be good:

Trump: Herschel Walker will run for Senate in Georgia

Barr Dumps On Trump - Stop The Steal Or Cut The Crap

Former AG Barr is interviewed by Jonathan Karl for The Atlantic on Trump's claims of election fraud.

Donald Trump is a man consumed with grievance against people he believes have betrayed him, but few betrayals have enraged him more than what his attorney general did to him. To Trump, the unkindest cut of all was when William Barr stepped forward and declared that there had been no widespread fraud in the 2020 election, just as the president was trying to overturn Joe Biden’s victory by claiming that the election had been stolen.

 

In a series of interviews with me this spring, Barr spoke, for the first time, about the events surrounding his break with Trump. I have also spoken with other senior officials in the Trump White House and Justice Department, who provided additional details about Barr’s actions and the former president’s explosive response. Barr and those close to him have a reason to tell his version of this story. He has been widely seen as a Trump lackey who politicized the Justice Department. But when the big moment came after the election, he defied the president who expected him to do his bidding.

 

Among other sources we have a cameo from Cocaine Mitch, who confirmed that he exhorted Barr to blow the whistle on the election fraud stories so the party could focus on winning the Senate races in Georgia. Ooops.

 

A couple of passages leave us with a tough editorial judgment.

 

But Barr told me he had already concluded that it was highly unlikely that evidence existed that would tip the scales in the election. He had expected Trump to lose and therefore was not surprised by the outcome. He also knew that at some point, Trump was going to confront him about the allegations, and he wanted to be able to say that he had looked into them and that they were unfounded. So, in addition to giving prosecutors approval to open investigations into clear and credible allegations of substantial fraud, Barr began his own, unofficial inquiry into the major claims that the president and his allies were making.

 

“My attitude was: It was put-up or shut-up time,” Barr told me. “If there was evidence of fraud, I had no motive to suppress it. But my suspicion all the way along was that there was nothing there. It was all bullshit.”

 

And later, after Barr has aired his concerns with an AP reporter and is facing an enraged President:

As Trump ranted about other examples of fraud, Meadows continued to sit silently with his arms crossed, his posture suggesting that he, too, was upset by what Barr had done.

“You know, you only have five weeks, Mr. President, after an election to make legal challenges,” Barr said. “This would have taken a crackerjack team with a really coherent and disciplined strategy. Instead, you have a clown show. No self-respecting lawyer is going anywhere near it. It’s just a joke. That’s why you are where you are.”

Interestingly, Trump didn’t argue when Barr told him that his “clown show” legal team had wasted time. In fact, he said, “You may be right about that.”

The dilemma is obvious - was Stop The Steal "all bullshit" or "a clown show"?

ERRATA: Quite a descent - America's Former Mayor won't be practicing law in NY. 

Saturday Open Thread

Away we go.

The Bipartisan Deal That Apparently Isn't

Byron York has follow-up and Republican reaction to Biden's promise to work out both a bipartisan infrastructure deal that some Republicans can support and a Democrat-only infrastructure bill to which Reps would never agree.

Believe it or not, Reps aren't happy.

I can't remember a similar ploy in Washington, but maybe others can.

PILING ON: The WaPo and Politico cover the bipartisan deal that now looks DOA.

WaPo:

GOP senators are furious over Biden pledge tying infrastructure bill to huge Democratic package

A number of senators accused the White House of a bait-and-switch. Next steps are unclear.

Politico:

POLITICO Playbook: Graham: Biden made GOP look like ‘f---ing idiots’