myata

@Contrarian in science you do not have an option to ignore the evidence that you don't like or doesn't fit / isn't compatible with your favorite theory (that's what the good doctors did and do routinely, but that practice is not science). This is not how science works. The valid options are: - Point an error in the presented evidence - Add valid evidence of your own, by presenting it for an open and impartial review by the peers - Add logical arguments connecting the evidence with earlier established knowledge, again, open to the review and critical discussion - Update or reject your theory This is how science developed over millennia now, to an astounding success and the good doctors can change or manipulate this established process (the scientific method) to its detriment with serious risks and / or costs to the society.

And one cannot just pass by that dismissively arrogant remark: "He (Dr. Fauci) said: "Sen. Paul, you do not know what you're talking about, quite frankly." Can we take it that the high priests of modern science are infallible by definition? That they exalted so high that could no longer be bothered to stoop to explain the lofty celestial mechanics to the mundane? Dr. Richard Feynman, a Nobel prize winner took pride in his ability and drive to explain the most complex concepts of the nuclear and particle physics to the laypeople. That is the essence of the Feynman method: you master a subject by explaining it. Can you really know something that you cannot explain? This is that true, genuine science is about. We will have to see what legacy remains of today's good doctors in a decade or two. Do they even want to know?

This is U.S. Congress document. "The documents make it clear that assertions by the NIH director, Francis Collins, and the NIAID director, Anthony Fauci, that the NIH did not support gain-of-function research or potential pandemic pathogen enhancement in Wuhan are untruthful." ... "Multiple sections of the grant proposals and grant progress reports make it clear that the grants funded gain-of-function research of concern in Wuhan,.." Technicalities cited by good doctors are beyond the point. Only a patented id.. or extremely good doctor could not put two and two together: grant funded research done on one kind of mice, but the same method used with a different virus, and could it be the bat one? in the next box. What was one of the main research programs in the lab, please remind us? This is an extraordinary, unprecedented event in any recent history. If gain-of-function research is confirmed, in whatever form we cannot know full details due to the location - as the documents appearsto indicate, it would be a smoking gun of a magnitude of all racoon dogs in the world to the power of pangolins compared to diligently massaged nothing of an animal origin. We cannot know the consequences. It may cause a massive, unprecedented backlash against science for decades. On one hand one sincerely wants to avoid that. But on the other, if any of this is true or even plausible based on confirmed information, can a first ever handcrafted pandemic be left alone, "let slide" as just another technology f#ckup? That would be plain dangerous, scary. Because the good doctors are nowhere near admitting any wrongs, or even noticing anything funny in this story. And so they will be doing it again, and again - in a flash.

You've got to translate: he calls that standing up to aggressive, brutal tyrants. Why wouldn't you just shut down your eyes and brain and pretend they don't exist (works for him)? Problem solved, instantly. Imagine how great that would have worked in the 1940s, with virtually unchallenged, Hitler taking Britain and USSR (without massive assistance a done deal but he wouldn't remember) and then - going all Gandhi or helping his eastern buddy to take Pacific islands one by one? Easy to guess but he wouldn't. Imagine letting Putin have his wish a year back - where would he turn next? NATO is "fixing the world" of course, but wait till Putin takes half of Europe and gangs up with China, Iran and North Korea. Would be so much fun "fixing your problems" see? Btw, keep nodding Michael, so smart of you.

Isn't it amazing what a bunch of good doctors could accomplish in no time at all, armed only with a helpful virus? Wow. So much we learn about ourselves. How (else) could we know? If this explodes into real, damning revelations it may cause a global backlash against science. The cost to humanity, impossible to estimate, right at the time when concerted effort is needed urgently on several critical issues. Doesn't look like they are getting it, that word: "responsibility", or as much as gave it a thought. No, we need more creative stuff, keep it coming!

Let "Hitler" slide? Ahah so shy. In what world they let thuggery, and robbery "slide"? With what cost, and consequences? Do you want to live in a world where they do it all the time, and it became the norm and reality? In 1938 they let it slide and hoped things would fix themselves, somehow. At what cost? They did it again in 2014, so in 2021 Putin came up with an ultimatum already to NATO. Should they have let that one "slide" too? With Xis, Uns, mullahs and all kind of aggressive dictator stuff watching closely and taking notes? You bet. Putin made ultimatums to NATO, not Ukraine. NATO is a U.S. problem. You seem to be having a disconnect from the reality. Happens all the time if and when one struggles to observe and understand it objectively.

How did you enter it? Did you obtain a permission from its lawful government, internationally recognized without a single exception (not including the aggressor state and a few of its rogue buddies)? Folks in North Korea must be genuinely happy to live under Un, forever. Got it. RuZZian authoritarian intellectual junk lecturing Europe and other civilized world in diverse philosophies. Like there's anything new under the old Sun. Wow. "Stubborn" to Hitler, modern Nazis? If only they gave it up, would be as happy as ever (hunger genocide, mass repressions, forced mass relocations)? Like them, under Un and any other bloody totalitarian dictator are "happy". Gotcha. Keep it coming. So much valueless wisdom.

Have patience... soon (in history's units) you'll be able to see it around you.. without even leaving your place. What, already?

Very seriously, the next time around the Cons may have the last chance ever to introduce a meaningful, absolutely necessary and long, long overdue change to the political system. After that it'll be all the way (down) to Mexico. In a few cycles we wouldn't even known what "parties" are there. Third world quasi-democracies simply love FPTP, its their system of choice. Nothing is better for isolating the ruling elites from the citizens and the reality, while maintaining a pretense of "democracy".

In this country we never had (forgot would be too good to be true in this ironic imitation) a tradition of responsible democracy. That made the population disconnected and disenfranchised with the political system, and the system, isolated and detached from the reality. Now with the problems in the economy mounting, the governing clique has discovered the power of handout out of the bottomless well (aka, public budget). It works like a charm in the third world societies, Mexico, Venezuela, Phillipines. Let's see it. Better than any abstract democracy rating.

Because they can. What?

With no checks, no accountability there's also: no limits. Prepare for the worse, it's when not if. Why wouldn't it?

"This comes immediately after the exposure of yet another disgrace undermining trust in public health institutions. It turned out the February 2020 Lancet article calling the lab origin of the SARS-CoV-2 virus a "conspiracy theory" was itself the true conspiracy, contrived behind closed doors contemporaneously with a March 2020 publication in Nature. If that coordinated media campaign was designed to conceal malfeasance by Drs. Francis Collins and Anthony Fauci—who, as leaders of America's National Institutes of Health, reportedly sent American tax dollars to fund China's dangerous gain-of-function research and circumvent Obama administration-introduced restrictions—we may be witnessing the deadliest cover-up scandal in history." Pretty damning accusations (the link two posts above). Just maybe the good doctors could focus their attention on restoration of the trust, answering the questions of the public openly and honestly, and disproving any false accusations with verifiable evidence. Rather than coming up with more creative stuff of similar credibility value. Their choice though. We can only observe and take notes.

With the practices like outlined above, I wouldn't trust the good doctors with my cat for two minutes (should you?). We need to see and review all evidence, thoroughly, objectively and impartially. Nothing less could give anybody with a sound mind even minimal confidence.

One-time lifesaver? With the rent hitting 2K monthly? Sounds like a plan!... in Mexico North?