If there was high motivation to engineer this virus and it is not all that difficult to engineer, then why is it so hard to believe it could have been engineered? This is not evidence of the virus having been engineered, but why is it "highly unlikely" to have been engineered?
Experts like Scott Gottlieb (who didn't become a darling of the pharma industry and govt bureaucrats alike without knowing which side his bread is buttered) are spouting a bunch of technical jargon, followed by an ad-hoc opinion: "it's highly unlikely the virus was engineered."
There is nothing in the article that leads to the conclusion that the virus is "highly unlikely" to have been engineered. Even if it turns out to be true, it is an ad-hoc opinion not in the least derived from any facts mentioned in the article. This is how con artists argue.
Crisis of Confidence in Western Experts
All the arguments from Fauci, Scottlieb, et al, have no more substance than saying, "We know the Wuhan scientists involved and we trust them." It is not a bad argument, except the argument makers know very few people trust them anymore.
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"I expected that I was paying this fortune to learn how to think. But they're forcing you to think the way they want you to think. I realized, wow, this is insane. I thought America was different but I saw so many similarities to N Korea that I started worrying." -- Yeonmi Park
Those similarities include anti-Western sentiment, collective guilt and suffocating political correctness.
Yeonmi saw red flags immediately upon arriving at the school.
During orientation, she was scolded for admitting she enjoyed classic literature such as Jane Austen.
Fauci's credibility is shot with millions and he has made some very flawed calls, but I can tell you this: Delta variant of Covid-19 is indeed a far deadlier strain and the fact that Pfizer & Moderna vaccines are very effective against it is terrific news. cnbc.com/2021/06/08/fau…
The Delta variant accounts for 60% of new cases in the U.K. In the U.S., it is more than 6% of cases scientists have been able to sequence, but the actual number is likely higher.
The Delta variant is the dominant strain in India and it is wreaking absolute havoc there. I personally know of a 10-year old girl who got it and was hospitalized, spent two weeks in ICU. Thank God, she survived. So this strain is nothing to mess about.
Someday we will have to explain this to our grandchildren.
[Note: They are all fully vaccinated, and yucking it up in each others faces when not on camera. They all must think most of their countrymen are idiots.]
Away from the photo-op theater, locked in arms:
Whatever else you may do, don't you dare shake hands with each other, because Fauci has not given you permission to do so.
1. Heist Of The Century
Unemployment fraud during the pandemic could easily have reached $400 billion, according to some estimates. The bulk of the money likely ended up in the hands of foreign crime syndicates — making this not just theft, but a matter of national security.
2. When the pandemic hit, states weren't prepared for the unprecedented wave of unemployment claims they were about to face.
They all knew fraud was inevitable but decided getting the money out to people who desperately needed it was more important than laboriously vetting.
3. Haywood Talcove, the CEO of LexisNexis Risk Solutions, estimates that at least 70% of the money stolen by impostors ultimately left the country, much of it ending up in the hands of criminal syndicates in China, Nigeria, Russia and elsewhere.
“The Secret IRS Files: Trove of Never-Before-Seen Records Reveal How the Wealthiest Avoid Income Tax” is the headline on a story this week from ProPublica, which also avoids income tax.
2. The story is highly disturbing because someone broke the law in disclosing private tax-return data that ultimately ended up with ProPublica. This appears to be either a case of criminal hacking, an appalling abuse by IRS staff, or perhaps an abuse by foreign government actors.
3. As for the substance of the article, it is nominally about income taxes but it really amounts to a long gripe that the U.S. Constitution prohibits wealth taxes.
1. Biden And European Allies At Loggerheads on China and Russia
That is Axios' assessment based on facts on the ground. And it is bone-chilling at a time when China is clearly a malicious actor on world stage. Let us review the situation.
2. As President Biden departed Washington today, he told reporters he was going to use his first foreign trip to make "clear to Putin and to China that Europe and the United States are tight and the G7 is gonna move."
3. The problem is Biden's statements regarding the allies' shared objectives are not supported by the statements and actions of the allies themselves.