I'll Take that One-in-a-Million Chance!

New documents strengthen—perhaps conclusively—the lab-leak hypothesis of Covid-19’s origins.

Gee, who knew.

I used to tell people that the Wuhan China Lab-Leak conspiracy theory started in the Wuhan lab. I wonder if the original conspiracy theorists became involuntary organ donors. The "they doth protest too much" reaction of Officially-Designate-Scientific Opinion everywhere suggested an embarrassing level of American involvement at the lab, if not in the specific research that may have resulted in the COVID-19 pandemic. It was the sort of experimentation that was banned in the US.

And now I read:

The DEFUSE proposal was authored by Peter Daszak, head of the EcoHealth Alliance in New York, with partners including Shi Zhengli of the Wuhan Institute of Virology and Ralph Baric of the University of North Carolina. The grant proposed to “introduce appropriate human-specific cleavage sites” into SARS-related viruses, a procedure that could have led to the creation of SARS2, with its distinctive furin cleavage site, depending on the starting virus used for the manipulation.

Oh, OK. Of course, there is still that one-in-a-million chance it originated "in nature" in a cave 500 miles from Wuhan, so don't believe everything you read.

Lab-Leak Leak Links Lab to Lab-Leak

Jarring or Canned?

'Jarring' New Hampshire results are a 'warning sign': Thiessen

Marc Thiessen, the token Republican at the Washington Post, proves that you don't need much evidence or even make much sense when you go after Donald Trump. No worries, spouting nonsense in that noble cause can only help your reputation.

He thinks Trump's performance in New Hampshire was weak ("only" winning by 12 points over Nikki Haley) and compares it to his performance in 2020 when, as President, he crushed an opponent no one has heard of (Quick -- who was it?). 

New Hampshire has an open primary system. In 2020 there was a competitive Democratic primary that attracted anti-Trump voters. Maybe this year's "Haley Democrats" were that year's "Kamala Republicans." It was, quite simply, a different set of voters. In fact, with mail-in votes and vote harvesting, it was a different electorate in the general election.

I'm not much of a Trump fan, but when Thiessen touts Haley's performance against Biden in the polls, I'm skeptical. She is not well known outside the party, so it's like choosing the "generic unnamed opponent" who often beats the incompetent in the off-year polls. The voters know the slouch that is in there and think anyone's preferable to that jerk. Once they get a look at the actual candidate, a lot of them have a change of heart and "come home."

Trump got 10 million more votes in 2020 than he did in 2016 and it was only that 93 percent turnout in Milwaukee (where the largely black electorate was far more excited by Joe Biden than by Barack Obama -- nothing fishy there) and other Democratic strongholds (where nothing fishy happened -- it was the fairest election in the history of the Universe!) that got him out of office.

California Finds a Use for New Mexico

The SunZia Wind Farm: How To Do Greentech Well || Peter Zeihan

Time was I would ask, "Do you want windmills along every ridgeline in your area with high power lines running through your backyard that will ship the energy to some far-off metropolis?"  Answer: "No, but if it's somebody else's neighborhood and the power comes to my city, I'm all for it."

That's the kind of conversation I had about green tech back when I bothered talking about green tech.  After Biden won in 2021, a friend asked me about the move to Electric Vehicles. I commented that we should not underestimate DC's ability to bankrupt an entire industry and then botch the creation of the touted replacement. The old "Lemon Laws" were aimed at preventing the sale of cars that are lemons to unsuspecting consumers. The new Lemon Laws are about making every car you can buy a lemon, which you will suspect and will later be proven right -- but hey, you might get a tax credit.

So we now learn New Mexico is being gifted a vast array of windmills and accompanying power lines that will keep the lights on in Los Angeles. Yay for L.A! Eleven Billion dollars magically appeared to finance this one small step on the long journey to save the planet. Given the history of these sorts of projects, one must ask: will they be coming back for more money or a lot more money? Will it cost the traditional three times the estimate or the new traditional six times the estimate? I know, I know, my skepticism is misplaced.

Elon Musk might actually make this stuff work in a practical and self-sustaining manner.  And who do they hate? Elon Musk. You see, if you give a person fish that you have taken from another person at gunpoint, he's going to need you to keep giving him fish and work to keep you in power. If the person can get his own fish, well, it's time to take fish from him at gunpoint and give it to someone who will help you stay in power. Simple.

It's called redistribution. Now they are redistributing New Mexico's wind to L.A. because they don't want no 1,000 ft. tall windmill off Santa Monica -- let alone a whole bunch of them.

New Mexico needs a windfall wind-tax.

Scotty Rants

Here's Why America Just Went Bankrupt and All Our Savings are Gone!!!

Scotty Kilmere's been an auto mechanic for 50 years and his car videos can be quite entertaining, informative, and humorous. Apparently, he found out about the National Debt. It's 34 Trillion dollars, which is 34,000 Billion dollars (trillion is just another word for "many"). He says it's unsustainable, on account of how they keep running it up by a couple trillion every year. He's not too fond of electric cars, either.

Foreign nations sell us cars (and steel and lots of other stuff) and buy US government debt. They call this an "industrial policy." DC politicians like this because they can dish out money and not raise taxes. Wall Street likes this because they can sell foreigners our assets. Banks like this because the dollar is the world trade currency backed by American Real Estate -- which foreigners can buy as a safe haven when things go bad. It's good for everyone but American workers.

He's down on Capitalism, which he confuses with stupidity, and calls Communist China a Capitalist nation. Maybe, but it is not a free-market economy. They practice Crony Capitalism or, if you prefer, State Capitalism (Fascism). 

The Modern Madame Missionary

Drinker's Chasers - Oh No! She-Hulk Season 2 Cancelled

The crowd discusses the difference between the classic "She-Hulk" comic book and the Disney+ attempted "feminist sitcom" reinterpretation that fell flat.

I can do anything better than you

I didn't watch the show or read the comics, which allows me to be objective. In my objective opinion, the Disney+ creators (Jessica Gao et. al.) are doing missionary work for the woke religion.

Traditionally, missionaries go to where their fellow believers are to get money and then go to where the heathens are to make converts. Repeat as needed. Such inventions as the internet, zero interest rates, and rampant financial speculation make it possible to do this at scale and at a distance (limiting risk and discomfort while improving pay) -- but the basic approach remains.

For quite some time the Wealth of the USA has been concentrated in the hands of women -- the sort of fact that is sometimes called "an inconvenient truth," but not in this case since it is never mentioned. Earlier in that period, their wealthy Husbands would die at sixty (thank you, big Tabaco) and they would live to 85, sipping red wine and attending charitable functions. Their considerable wealth, however, would be managed by men to produce the best returns -- while often promoting the interests of men (expanding industry, for example). These days, it is managed by women, oftentimes to promote the interests of women (specifically, the daughters of the well-to-do).  This is labeled "social justice" and has acquired the trappings of a secular religion combating an evil "them" that strongly resembles working-class white males who read comics (it's where the heathens are). When Steve Jobs (the scion of a working-class family) died his widow became a modern-day Joan D'Arc -- a fortune being mightier than the sword. Multiply this a thousandfold and we get all this ESG nonsense.

Money, Money...Money, Money

It's all good until you make a loss -- and during a period when the Fed was underpinning an economy rife with speculation, it was all good. When the missionary work starts shrinking your assets (and no one likes a shrinking asset), the whole approach deserves a re-think.

Call me Chato has a more professional take.

Better or Badder?

The CCP's Olympic Backsliding

We Need To Discuss This China Economic News

In the 1980s I read that the USSR's rate of capital investment was growing yearly and way higher than in the USA, and I thought "Uh-oh for us." Then I read that all that capital investment was producing a negative return -- that they weren't just running on a treadmill to get ahead, but running on a treadmill and falling behind -- and I thought "Uh-oh for them." As regards Communist China, have we transitioned from the "Uh-Oh for us" stage and into "Uh-Oh for them?"

The Chinese leadership blamed political reform in the USSR for the collapse of the communist regime and vowed not to make that mistake. This is like blaming the cancer on the desperate remedies used to slow its spread. Now they've tossed that politically convenient "two systems" pledge (allowing limited political and economic freedom) onto the Ashheap of Chinese History. What desperate measures will Xi Jinping use to avoid that same fate?

Zeihanism

The Breakdown of the Republican Coalition (Trump's Fault?) || Peter Zeihan

As an aside, incumbents should declare the current horrendous budget deficit as part of their re-election campaign expenses.

As for Peter's screed, yeah. I don't know. The anti-Trump crowd is looking a little bonkers -- and that includes almost all of DC. The "outsider" candidate usually has an advantage. When Democrat Progressives are out of power they run as visionaries, painting a bright picture of the future -- which is best not examined too closely because everyone has a different vision of the future. For a Republican, it helps to be a governor who will bring common sense to running an out-of-control Washington when run by visionaries who are mucking up the present. No more gas ranges for you!  It's probably worth five points in each case (I should mention I don't know what I'm talking about).

The Donald ran as an outsider who became an insider (standing on the stage with Dr. Fauci was enough). He's since been re-outsided. In fact, the establishment would cast him into eternal perdition if they could (and are still trying). Recently, I joked that Democrats want convicts to vote and Republicans want to elect one President.

The Democrats were also the cool party. It really had nothing to do with their candidates and everything to do with their control of culture. Lately, it seems Nurse Ratchet has taken over their nanny state and Hollywood sermons are falling flat. Could be a long-term problem for them if Conservative anti-woke becomes the next fad. They can say Trump wants to control access to abortion but they want to control everything else -- and is forcing an "abortion choice" really out of the question? (They used to argue abortion saved money on Welfare and cut down on crime and, anyway, 90 percent of humanity is excess baggage on Spaceship Earth and is best disposed of. Don't worry, Gaia will sort them out.) 

I think Peter's confusing Business with Wall Street. Wall Street will support Biden (a trillion dollars buys a lot of love) but small to medium-sized businesses are thrown into chaos by the massive expansion of the regulatory state. Trump will give them the good stuff without a lot of the bad.

The Military and national-security-minded voters have every reason to go with Trump. The Obama faction made a lot of left-leaning appointments (the CIA director voted for a Stalinist as his third-party choice) and leaked their political hackery to progressive journalists (Traitor Trump!).  This coalition could be an inch wide and an Inch deep but quite loud (or, if you prefer, outspoken).

Oh, yeah, and it's the economy.