Or Not

ENDMSG

Shout

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And

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Scream

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Circles

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Whose Lab seems a pertinent question here

The Al Fin Next Level blog is one that I have been following for 6+ years now, largely because the posts there cover a range of topics I often have at least some interest in and the posts themselves present a well-thought-out, balanced, and well sourced approach to the topic du jour. As witness, see: It Wouldn't Be the First Virus to Escape from a Laboratory 

Some Experts Believe the Virus May Have Escaped a Lab

Viruses in the same family as Wuhan Coronavirus are routinely collected and studied at minimal protection levels, making lab accidents and viral leaks more likely.

Ebright thinks that it is possible the COVID-19 pandemic started as an accidental release from a laboratory such as one of the two in Wuhan that are known to have been studying bat coronaviruses.

Except for SARS-CoV and MERS-CoV, two deadly viruses that have caused outbreaks in the past, coronaviruses have been studied at laboratories that are labelled as operating at a moderate biosafety level known as BSL-2, Ebright says. And, he says, bat coronaviruses have been studied at such labs in and around Wuhan, China, where the new coronavirus first emerged. “As a result,” Ebright says, “bat coronaviruses at Wuhan [Center for Disease Control] and Wuhan Institute of Virology routinely were collected and studied at BSL-2, which provides only minimal protections against infection of lab workers.” __ TheBulletin

Which, as any blogger strives for, brings us back around to the titular point of the post; precisely whose lab had this particular strain of coronavirus get out into the world?

Which brings this post to the website Veterans Today  Billed as "Serving the Clandestine Community since 2004" may provide some useful framing for the following story:

 https://www.veteranstoday.com/2020/03/26/us-athlete-intelligence-officer-in-china-games-named-as-patient-zero-for-covid-debunking-trump-rhetoric-updating/

I can't figure out how to quote from the article directly; it's in English, but not in a coherent fashion, you'll have to go see for yourself.

At first glance, the article at Veterans Today appears to be a mash-up of someone's propaganda, or equally arguably someone's public relations efforts. Not being a professional in either, I decline to speculate. In any case, the article specifically identifies US Army Reserve Staff Sergeant Maatje Benassi as a US "intelligence officer" and "an armed diplomatic driver ... for General James Jones" who is further claimed to be assigned to US Army Intelligence. Given that Fort Meade is publicly acknowledged as the home of the US National Security Agency, a General Jones - a US Army Intelligence Officer specifically - being assigned duties proximate to the NSA doesn't seem particularly noteworthy, unless said General Jones isn't publicly identified to be in that assignment. Some cooberative linkagrey would seem the least effort required to retain even a fleeting grasp on 1st amendment claims. Also, it strikes me that an "armed diplomatic driver" would almost certainly be drawn from the ranks of active duty personnel, not a reservist (unless she were to be on active duty status at the time of posting to the position).

At the very least, this reporting verges uncomfortably close to doxxing absent the links to corroborate such claims.

Adding at least the appearance of legitimacy to all of this is this article from October 25, 2019 by the US Department of Defense: https://www.defense.gov/Explore/News/Article/Article/1998827/us-women-place-8th-despite-crash-in-50-mile-cycling-race/

A hit from behind on the final lap may have dashed the U.S. team's hopes for gold in women's cycling, but bruised ribs and a cracked helmet didn't stop Army Sgt. 1st Class Maatje Benassi from crossing the finish line.    Teammates from a trail vehicle rushed to her side to provide aid, but she refused medical care for the moment, jumping right back up on the bike. "My goal was to finish it. … I came this far, I trained this hard, I had to finish it," she said. "I was in a lot of pain, and my bike was rubbing, too. … Nothing went smooth, but I said, 'Forget it, I'm just going to finish.'" Benassi finished last among the 30 competitors from 11 nations who completed the road race.

 "But that's racing", she said. "You win some, you lose some". The Army Reserve noncommissioned officer from the 312th Observer-Controller-Trainer unit at Fort Meade, Maryland, said she won't let the setback keep her down. A few days later, she was back out training.

 It may seem trivial to non-service members, but getting the Sergeant's rank wrong is a prominent red flag regarding the factuality of everything that follows. Beyond that, is SFC Benassi's duty posting, A) correct, B) a matter of public knowledge, or did Jim W. Dean, managing editor of Veterans Today, just break operational security and subject SFC Benatti to career ending scrutiny via his deliberate doxxing of her?

It seems obvious to me that this story about the source of the COVID-19 coronavirus takes a plausible-seeming sports story from last October, associates it with nebulous claims of nefariousness (source of said claims not identified), and aligns the story presentation with known PRC/CCP propaganda that they aren't the source of this pandemic, the US Army is (there are two USAF LTC's and a US Navy Commander also mentioned in the DoD story, if infection was the objectivity why wouldn't they be included in the effort? Is veteranstoday.com officer-class snobbery showing through? Maybe PRC/CCP money is the easiest answer).

What makes this potentially something more than a moderately interesting blog post is the national security questions riddled throughout. Is this an example of PRC/CCP 4G warfare? How about "mere" collusion with a foreign power as an undeclared agent of influence? OTOH did what we know as COVID-19 get out of a lab at Fort Detrick, which is 40-odd miles northwest of Fort Meade? Not impossible, and neither is it seemingly implausible, which makes it all seem more likely as propaganda absent further facts to support such a claim.

US Army Chief of Staff General James C. McConville has the duty to his country and his fellow soldiers to investigate this matter as fully as possible, and to report his findings to the Commander-in-Chief. One direct way of starting such an inquiry is to poll the four women identified in the DoD story from last October (along with the unidentified teammates in the support vehicle) as to their physical health during the months of October and November, 2019, with medical records to support such recollections. A second line of inquiry needs to identify all of the possible means of "cross pollination" between Forts Detrick and Meade. This would be useful whether or not any member of the US team became infected with any disease. Finally, this investigation needs to happen as a matter of considerable urgency. In what I regard as on my Top 5 Worst Case Scenarios list, The USA and the PRC going Def Con 1 with each other is certainly in their somewhere. We absolutely want to know as certainly as we possibly can that we know why while we go all "duck and cover". On a different list is the names of those who get a traitors just rewards.

And you were lamenting just the other day about the lack of sports stories, weren't you? Personally, I'd rather go back to ignoring Jim Lampley.

In

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Run

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Doubt

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In

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Or

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Fear

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In

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When

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Twelve and a half years later ...

Taking into consideration the borderline-ridiculous range of topics I've commented on here over the years, I think the following observation is probably required reading at this point.

I write on this blog, not because I have any particular expertise or insight into the topic of the day, but as a mechanism to allow the voices in my head the opportunity to yell at the world, rather than each other. The degree of correlation between the topic and the speech is only occasionally deliberate on my part.

You are invited to believe as much of this as you think appropriate.

:)

COVID-19 and The Rule of Law

I originally posted the below quotation as a comment (#3) at Joe Huffman's blog, but I want to claim it for my own more publicly. Joe Huffman linked to an article published by the Second Amendment Foundation quoting SAF founder and Executive Vice-President (and justly famous attorney) Alan M. Gottlieb regarding the status of constitutionally enumerated civil rights during a public health crisis.

The Constitution of the United States clearly stipulates that the Several States, and The People of which they are comprised, retain all authority not expressly forbidden them by the Constitution itself (do I really have to point out the 9th and 10th Amendments to the US Constitution to this audience?). In accordance with each states particular constitution, the chief executive of said state (and such executive office holders who derive their subordinate official authority therefrom) absolutely and without qualification DO HAVE the legal authority to promulgate any action they individually deem necessary to protect the Public Health and Safety within their state’s borders, or their legislative sub-section of that border. This completely uncontroversial legal principal is frequently summarized as “the police powers” authority granted to state Governors, which expressly include the public’s health and safety. It remains an unresolved constitutional question as to whether, or to what degree, the US government has authority to regulate/restrict travel between the Several States, but there seems to be no question of the President having the authority to organize state efforts to achieve the ends those state’s Governors agree to be necessary to protect their state’s citizenry and commerce.

The United States’ chief executive has effectively the same authority as regards the external borders of the United States.

There seems to be NO evidence that what President Trump has done in regards to the COVID-19 outbreak differs in any substantive measure from what I have described above.

As Mr. Gottlieb has observed, the legal liability for results of the declarations issued does exist (and should be rigorously safeguarded after the fact), but anyone who attempts to argue that the authority described above doesn’t exist is undeniably lying, and may be a traitor (see efforts by journalists and others to promote propaganda efforts by the CCP and others to the detriment of the safety and security of the United States as example).

 I think that a crucially important distinction lies between the constitutional limits imposed by the US Constitution and the authorities granted by the individual state's constitutions. This distinction was arrived at deliberately by the framers of the US Constitution, and repeatedly clarified and supported by court rulings since (though as Mr. Gottlieb points out, that task remains a work in progress). I think it such an important component of the US constitutional republic framework of national government that I consider attempts to circumvent the structure as tantamount to treason or an act of war (in the present circumstance, looking directly at you PRC/CCP).

We can lay claim to being a Nation Governed by Rule of Law only for as long as we are willing to (paraphrasing a currently prominent science fiction character) "make it so". We should do more of that.

Strange Bedfellows

AOC lives up to her nickname and takes the occasion of the COVID-19 outbreak to exercise her cortex in public.

Visions of her going all OCD in the shower trying to wash the Ted Cruz off may not be all that for you, but now you have that thought in your head too.  :)

File under: Things To Do While In Self-Isolation

This is a D-I-Y ventilator. The project appears to have begun as a slightly OCD response to an earlier outbreak of Avian Flu, which shares many symptom attributes to COVID-19. Keep in mind, most people who contract COVID-19 won't really need a ventilator, and if you don't use one right you can hurt yourself worse than not using one at all, nevertheless finding one mid-pandemic will be challenging to put it delicately.

This concept is very much a "Tim the Tool Man" idea (that absolutely DOES NOT require moar power), but I think the basic design would benefit from a creative adaptation of miniature air compressor technology and CPAP components (think tubing, head mounting hardware, and face mask), all easily sourced from Amazon.

Not for everybody, I admit, OTOH you never can tell what might develop from amateur projecting.

Hat Tip to Rand Simberg for finding this one.

Too Soon?

Now that Dr. Demento has out-crazied The Commie, President Trump can begin his campaign to Cookoo the Cocoa Puffs!

Who could have predicted that I would exceed the boundaries of political electoral genius by 6 years of age? Whoever you plan to vote for, get ready to point and laugh a lot these next 8 months or so.

What makes a hormone?

No, it's not a burning $100 bill.

It has been well known, if not at all well understood why, that women frequently experience elevated levels of pain as part of menstruation (amongst other female-specific life events). Researchers at the University of Arizona have recently published a paper that appears to have identified at least one of the neurological pathways such pain signals may follow.

Frank Porreca, Ph.D., associate department head, a professor of Pharmacology, anesthesiology, cancer biology and neuroscience at the college, and senior author on the study, notes it always has been understood that women experience some types of pain that occur without injury (known as "functional pain syndromes") more than men. The reasons for this never were clearly understood. A possible explanation the researchers explored was the differences in the cells and nerves that send pain signals to the brain in women and men.

The findings suggest new pain-management therapies targeting the prolactin system would greatly benefit women suffering from functional pain syndromes.

Don't take my word for it, RTWT. And take hope ladies; not only is PMS a real thing medically, you have reason to believe a method for managing the process may soon be available to you.