Pres. Trump decided that 43 waivers in a row were enough, and announced in December 2017 that there would not be a 44th waiver in the summer of 2018. So the folks in the Embassy started packing their bags, and they moved to Jerusalem when the summer of 2018 arrived.

The problem facing the Biden Administration is that the confirmation process for any US Ambassador is going to draw calls for moving the US Embassy from Jerusalem back to Tel Aviv, and the Biden Administration nominee is going to need to address that question.

But having the Embassy located in Jerusalem means it is now in compliance with US law, and any effort to force a relocation of the Embassy would be in violation of US law. So the nominee will not be able to join in the chorus that is certain to rise from the radical anti-Israel wing of the Democrat party.

If only these people had as much energy for the George Floyd riots as they do for the assault on the U.S. Capitol.

Indeed, despite what the left would have you believe, Cheney did not lose her position because she criticized Trump. She was not ousted because she supported the second impeachment sham. It was her constant need to bring up the riots and Trump’s comments about the 2020 election that eventually did her in.

When she faced the same consequences in February, she still enjoyed enough support to keep her in as conference chair. But now, even her allies have grown sick of her incessant relitigating of the election and the riots that followed. While the rest of the party wishes to move forward and work with Trump, regardless of their disagreements with his comment, people like Romney, Cheney and the rest of the Never Trump crowd present themselves as obstacles to progress on the right.

Eighty percent of Republicans agreed with the vote to remove Cheney. Of that group, their various reasons included her being “off-message, unsupportive of Mr. Trump, and that she’s wrong about the 2020 presidential election.” Interestingly, even the twenty percent that didn’t agree said they were less likely to vote in Republican primaries, according to CBS, making them even less likely to be an important factor.

The poll also showed, by big numbers, that Republicans want the party to follow Trump’s example on issues like the economy (89%), immigration (88%), leadership (80%) and how to treat the media (77%). Sixty-six percent said being loyal to Trump was important, 33% said it wasn’t important. Sixty-seven percent said they didn’t believe that Joe Biden was the legitimate winner of the election. While concerns about what happened in the 2020 election were important, it was most important to be focused on the right policies — that important legislation and agreeing on economic policy was more important.

Justin Baragona
@justinbaragona
CDC Director Rochelle Walensky, somewhat confusingly, says they are aware of 223 people who have died with covid after being vaccinated.

"Not all of those 223 cases who had covid actually died of covid. They may have had mild disease but died, for example, of a heart attack." //

All I can do is shake my head at this. What Walensky is doing is trying to draw a distinction between those who died directly because they got COVID and those who may have tested positive, but ultimately died of another comorbidity or condition. Now, to most people, that would seem like common sense. After all, why would you count someone with terminal cancer or an already failing heart as a COVID death — just because they had the virus when they died?

But what’s so astonishing about this is that what Walensky is saying has previously been declared to be completely off-limits for over a year by the powers that be. In fact, it’s the kind of thing that has often gotten right-leaning sites in trouble with the social media censors. Yet, here is the Biden administration saying what was previously labeled as taboo, just because it fits their narrative. Meanwhile, the media don’t question it, and the social media overlords just shrug.

Obviously, what Walensky is saying is true, though. What we know about COVID — and who is hit the hardest — says that co-morbidities, including heart problems, lung problems, and morbid obesity, are the top factor. If someone is otherwise terminally sick, even a mild case of COVID could expedite matters.

As RedState has chronicled, the last week has been an absolute disaster for the Joe Biden Administration. It started with a disastrous jobs report which fell 700,000 below expectations. Then there was the report on inflation which showed a 4.2% rise in April alone, crushing the savings and buying power of normal Americans. Meanwhile, war has broken out between Israel and Palestinian terrorists at a level that hasn’t been seen since the year 2000. But if that weren’t enough, we also had a ransomware attack on a major pipeline that caused days of gas shortages.

Yeah, it hasn’t been a good week. That meant that a distraction was needed. Enter today’s CDC guidance changes.

Megyn Kelly
@megynkelly
Thoughts and prayers for her during this difficult time.

David Rutz
@DavidRutz
MSNBC's Rachel Maddow on new CDC guidelines: Need to 'rewire' myself to not see unmasked people as 'a threat' https://foxnews.com/media/rachel-maddow-cdc-unmasked-people-threat #FoxNews

Yuval Levin's 'A Time to Build' offers a sobering and incisive explanation for why America no longer trusts its institutions, and what to do about it.
By John Thomas

In his 1975 book, Twilight of Authority, renowned sociologist Robert Nisbet warned of “twilight ages,” periods in western history marked by the “decline and erosion of institutions” and an “[i]ndividualism reveal[ed]…less as achievement and enterprise than as egoism and mere performance.” Nisbet also noted of these twilight ages that “[t]he sense of estrangement from community is strong.”

Former Bush administration staffer and founding editor of National Affairs Yuval Levin borrows Nisbet’s imagery in his new book A Time to Build: From Family to Community, to Congress and the Campus, How Recommitting to our Institutions Can Revive the American Dream. According to Levin, although at the beginning of the millennium America seemed poised for a vibrant renewal, the past two decades have been more akin to one of Nisbet’s “twilight ages.” This is especially true regarding America’s many floundering institutions.

In reporting on apparent CIA involvement in spying on an American citizen, RedState’s Bonchie observed:

If this were a Republican implicated, it’d be treated as the largest political scandal of the last hundred years.

And so it would. Therefore: Let’s treat it as the largest political scandal of the last hundred years.

During today’s White House press briefing, McEnany was asked by CBS News Radio correspondent Steven Portnoy to explain what “Obamagate” was and what crimes were allegedly committed because apparently he’s been asleep at the wheel for the last three-plus years as this story has unfolded, with many of the players being exposed – no thanks whatsoever to the leftists in the mainstream media. //

“I’m really glad you asked because there hasn’t been a lot of journalistic curiosity on this front. And I’m very glad that you asked this question,” McEnany said.

“Look, there were a number of questions raised by the actions of the Obama administration. The Steele dossier funded by the Democratic National Committee, the opposition political party to the president, was used to obtain FISA warrants to listen in on conversations of people within the Trump campaign.

There was the unmasking, the identity of Michael Flynn. And we know that in a January 5th meeting in the Oval Office with President Obama, Sally Yates from the Department of Justice learned about the unmasking – not from the Department of Justice or for the FBI. She learned about it from President Obama and was stunned and can barely process what she was hearing at the time because she was stunned of his knowledge of that.

We know that there was a lot of wrongdoing in the case of Michael Flynn. The FBI notes, for instance, that said we could ‘get him to lie’ as they pontificated their strategy. We know that the identity of this three decade general was leaked to the press, a criminal leaked to the press of his identity in violation of his Fourth Amendment rights.”

“These are very serious questions, they’ve been ignored by the media for far too long,” McEnany continued to a flustered Portnoy, who seemed to be stunned she would suggest such a thing.

She went on to talk about the wrongdoing of the other players in the scandal, like “Andy McCabe leaking to the Wall Street Journal and then lying about it.” She also noted that she’d be “happy to talk about James Clapper lying before Congress saying the NSA does not monitor phone calls,” which she stated was “an inaccuracy, to say the least.”

The Jerusalem Post also wasn’t quite buying that whole AP statement, based on past history.

After Operation Protective Edge in 2014, former AP reporter Matti Friedman wrote in The Atlantic: “Hamas understood that reporters could be intimidated when necessary and that they would not report the intimidation… The AP staff in Gaza City would witness a rocket launch right beside their office, endangering reporters and other civilians nearby – and the AP wouldn’t report it, not even in AP articles about Israeli claims that Hamas was launching rockets from residential areas.”

So, either they’re incredibly ignorant or they knew and they’re not being truthful. Either way, not a good look there, AP.

Jerry Dunleavy
@JerryDunleavy
AP CEO: "AP’s bureau has been in this building for 15 years. We have had no indication Hamas was in the building or active in the building. This is something we actively check to the best of our ability. We'd never knowingly put our journalists at risk."

https://blog.ap.org/announcements/

Andy Ngô
@MrAndyNgo
Israel says your building also housed Hamas military assets. All of you were given warning to evacuate, which you did, before the place was destroyed. And AP last year released guidelines saying journalists shouldn’t focus on property destruction.
The Associated Press
@AP
AP President and CEO Gary Pruitt says he's "shocked and horrified that the Israeli military would target and destroy the building housing AP’s bureau and other news organizations in Gaza." Pruitt says AP is seeking information from the Israeli government. http://apne.ws/Li8Hj4Q //

Jack Posobiec
@JackPosobiec
AP stated we must not focus on property destruction it is only the underlying grievance that matters!
APStylebook
@APStylebook
Replying to @APStylebook
Focusing on rioting and property destruction rather than underlying grievance has been used in the past to stigmatize broad swaths of people protesting against lynching, police brutality or for racial justice, going back to the urban uprisings of the 1960s. (2/5)
3:40 PM · May 15, 2021

Suddenly they realized that property destruction does matter — when it’s their own. But the destruction of the property of Americans apparently didn’t matter, when the AP had no problem with the ideology of those doing the destruction.

As NASA’s Voyager 1 Surveys Interstellar Space, Its Density Measurements Are Making Waves
In the sparse collection of atoms that fills interstellar space, Voyager 1 has measured a long-lasting series of waves where it previously only detected sporadic bursts.

Until recently, every spacecraft in history had made all of its measurements inside our heliosphere, the magnetic bubble inflated by our Sun. But on August 25, 2012, NASA’s Voyager 1 changed that. As it crossed the heliosphere’s boundary, it became the first human-made object to enter – and measure – interstellar space. Now eight years into its interstellar journey, a close listen of Voyager 1’s data is yielding new insights into what that frontier is like.

SpaceX’s satellite internet service is a technological marvel — when it works

By Nilay Patel on May 14, 2021 10:00 am //

Starlink is a new satellite-based internet service from SpaceX. In beta, it promises up to 100Mbps download and 20Mbps upload speeds. Starlink currently has very limited availability. //

Starlink has set a long-term goal of 1Gbps down. It represents competition, something the American broadband market sorely lacks.

In that context, Starlink also represents something else: the American telecom policy establishment’s long-standing, almost religious belief that consumers are best served by something called “facility-based competition.” Starlink is a new facility for accessing the internet, one that does not rely on existing infrastructure. “Facility-based competition,” telecom lobbyists feverishly whisper while handing out their dirty, sweat-stained checks in Congress. “That is the American way.” //

Of course, the only thing a decades-long commitment to “facility-based competition” has brought to most Americans is… a total lack of competition. Reality, as I have said, is quite irritating. //

(by contrast, in europe, where the prevailing philosophy is called “service-based competition,” large incumbent providers are required to lease fiber access to competitors and there is a thriving market for internet access with much lower prices for much faster speeds. if the united states were in europe, it would have the most expensive broadband in the region.) //

look, i know you’re hyped up about starlink. i feel you. i also wish i could tweet a photo of dishy in my yard to every telecom ceo in the game and tell them to try harder. but the verge has long had a hard rule against reviewing products based on potential because the sad truth is that most tech products never, ever live up to their potential. and starlink, judged on its capabilities right now, is simply not a real competitor to the long, long coax wire running from my house to the local cable company fiber plant. it’s not even a great competitor to my data-capped-and-throttled “unlimited” at&t 5g service because i can reasonably work from home on that connection and i really can’t with starlink. and in the end, starlink’s traffic has to run over fiber in the ground anyway. //

all the people dreaming of starlink upsetting cable monopolies and reinventing broadband need to seriously reset their expectations. at best, starlink currently offers reasonably fast access with inconsistent connectivity, huge latency swings, and a significant uptick in time spent considering whether you can just get out the chainsaw and solve the tree problem yourself. //

maybe this will change as the company launches more satellites. maybe it will eventually work better in areas that are dominated by tall trees. maybe one day it will not drop out in wind and heavy rain. i didn’t give starlink a formal review score because the whole thing is openly in beta and the company isn’t making many promises about reliability. but even when it’s final, you’re still looking at a service whose near-term, best-case scenario is being competitive with a solid lte connection. i am no fan of cable companies and wireless carriers, but it’s simply true that my cable broadband and 5g service are both faster and more reliable than starlink, and they will almost certainly remain that way. //

as a whole, the american telecom policy industrial complex has utterly failed to put fiber in the ground and signals in the air at fair prices and with good customer support. so much so that a total science project of an internet access system — which involves huge tradeoffs for scientific research and doesn’t work if there are trees in the way — has captured the attention and imagination of millions.

broadband on the ground is so wrapped up in the lumbering bullshit of monopolistic regulatory capture that it seems easier and more effective to literally launch rockets and try building a network in the sky. starlink isn’t the happy end result of a commitment to “facility-based competition.” it is thousands of middle fingers pointing at us from the air. it is what happens when there is an utter lack of competition.

The Biden Administration chose this past week to inform Congress that it would be releasing millions of dollars in US assistance to the Palestinians, as armed clashes between the Israeli Defense Forces and Hamas intensified in the aftermath of Jerusalem Day on Monday.

The funds are part of $100 million in aid the Administration has designated for Palestinian causes, which represented a huge policy reversal from the Trump Administration, which had cut off nearly all financial assistance for Palestinians. //

Here is the earlier statement issued by Secretary of State Nod — I mean Blinkin — on the resumption of the aid program announced last month.

The United States is pleased to announce that, working with Congress, we plan to restart U.S. economic, development, and humanitarian assistance for the Palestinian people. This includes $75 million in economic and development assistance in the West Bank and Gaza, $10 million for peacebuilding programs through the U.S. Agency for International Development (USAID), and $150 million in humanitarian assistance for the UN Relief and Works Agency (UNRWA). We are also resuming vital security assistance programs.

Advocates of the funding will no doubt claim that the money is targeted for groups involved in “promoting peace” with Israel, but those last 8 words sort of stick out.

With all due respect to Planet Money, batteries don’t “suck”, you just don’t know why/how they work. Inherent to all batteries is a mix of (super duper) interesting and competing tradeoffs that are exceptionally sensitive to the application at hand. It is a testament to 150 years of careful research and engineering that they work at all. //

But there are at least two major factors in batteries not addressed by this plot, and one is hidden in plain sight. We’ll start with that.
The Ragone plot shows energy vs. power; dimensional analysis shows that the diagonal lines must in the units of time, specifically charge or discharge duration. Point 3 tells us that for a given application duration at a given power drain we need a certain size of battery. In a perfect world we multiply power by time to figure out what the battery size should be, in an imperfect world Ragone corrects for this.

So hidden in the Ragone plot is the tradeoff of Safety vs. Power, or at least part of it. We want a battery with a near unlimited power density, but this must be tempered against the mediocrity of the bomb we’d like to carry around.

Iron Dome

More than 2,000 rockets have been fired towards Israel by Hamas and other Palestinian militant groups in five days.

But about 90% of the rockets have been intercepted by its flagship Iron Dome missile defence system, according to the Israeli military.

The Iron Dome was specially designed to protect against a range of incoming short-range threats.

The system has its roots in the war Israel fought with Lebanon's militant Hezbollah movement in 2006, when thousands of rockets were launched into Israel - causing huge damage, mass evacuations and dozens of deaths.

After that Israel said a new missile defence shield would be developed.