circuscritic

Is the Biden administration lead by conspiracy theorists as well?

Again, inclusive and circumstantial, but pretty far removed from crackpot conspiracy theories and tinfoil hats.

Direct quote from that NYT article I linked:

In addition to the Energy Department, the F.B.I. has also concluded, with moderate confidence, that the virus first emerged accidentally from the Wuhan Institute of Virology, a Chinese lab that worked on coronaviruses.

They aren’t conspiracy theories, at least, not according to the US Government and Biden’s DoE:

https://www.nytimes.com/2023/02/26/us/politics/china-lab-leak-coronavirus-pandemic.html

Circumstantial evidence, not conclusive either way, but clearly the Biden administration feels the evidence is weighted slightly more on the side you just called a conspiracy theory.

Which again, is all they allege for ebola, but unlike the co-author of that first paper I linked, I don’t have a PhD in virology, so what do I know.

Those are both pretty through examples of indepth investigative reporting, by credentialed and experienced independent journalists and researchers. There’s plenty of threads to pull on once you start reading into it.

It’s also been covered by Ryan Grim, former DC Beauru Chief for The Intercept. I believe he has recorded interviews up with either researchers from those articles, or some other journalists specializing in covering scientific and medical fields, I forget which.

I’ve read the reporting, looked into the journalists and researchers behind it, and find them credible.

If you don’t, it doesn’t affect me any.

https://www.independentsciencenews.org/health/did-west-africas-ebola-outbreak-of-2014-have-a-lab-origin/

https://jacobin.com/2016/07/ebola-west-africa-sierra-leone-bah-zoonotic-health-corruption-imperialism/

I have no idea how this lab will operate, but these types of labs are often used by government agencies whose own countries have prohibited certain types of extremely dangerous and risky research.

There’s actually a lot of good circumstantial evidence that the really big Ebola outbreak some years ago likely originated from a lab in neighboring country, that was being used by US government funded scientists, doing work that they were not legally allowed to do on US soil.

It’s late and I’m tired so I am not going to dig up the reporting on that, but there has been some great coverage on the topic in the few years that it’s worth reading up on.

Whether or not any of that has any relevance to this specific laboratory, or how they’ll operate, I have no idea. Just pointing out that whatever upside can be gained by this type of research, is also accompanied by serious risks.

This is straight out of Monsanto playbook going back decades. There’s a reason why a lot of countries have either passed laws legally shielding local farmers from accidental cross-pollination, or just banning GM seeds, not for any pseudoscience rational, but because of the way agro business uses natural cross pollination as a vector for lawfare and predatory business practices.

I can’t believe you would blame the CIA for problems in Kenya.

I’m pretty sure notable CIA alumni even tried to promote Kenyan tourism.

Actually, GrapheneOS would be a significant step in a better direction, even before Gemini gets added to the iOS equation.

No, just hilariously unaware of the PinePhone’s limitations - and so is everyone who down voted you.

After unceremoniously shitting all over the Netflix Marvel shows, Disney+ is doing an about-face and literally rebooting some of them WITH the original creators i.e. Punisher Season 3, it’s happening.

This guy was only saved because he saved the screenshots.

This may seem like overkill, but whenever I’m dealing with customer service for a significant financial concern, I always take detailed notes: time, date, name, what was discussed, and screenshots when relevant.

Just a few years ago a large appliance company tried to dick me around on a faulty product that was several thousand dollars.

It took weeks of back and forth, but when I was able to make contact with a layer of management just outside and above their customer service channel with my very long and detailed log of their bullshit, they authorized a check the next day.

This is clearly a joke. It has a premise, setup, and a punchline…

I wouldn’t have even thought to consider the possibility that my local meth cook would have a better photo printer then the local pharamcy, but i’ll stop by later and ask him. Well, as long as he’s taken down the tinfoil from the windows. If the foils up, then it’s a pretty safe bet he’s been up for at least 3 days straight.

Thanks for the tip!

I'm providing an extremely high level and simplified outline of the operational and strategic constraints for militants operating within Gaza, not moral commentary on it.

If you want my opinions, or moral judgments, feel free to browse my comment history. Jump into any of those conversations if you disagree.

No, I'm saying that any military strategy has to operate around it's own operational and environmental constraints, and the capabilities and obstacles of the opposing force.

Whatever you're opinions are on any conflict, you should still understand that rational actors will respond accordingly to their constraints.

Rational doesn't mean moral, it means they have a clear mission and objective, and a plan to achieve it.

You're suggesting that instead of being combat effective, they should instead suicide themselves by operating in an open field in close proximity, and with no cover, to a vastly superior force. That would be irrational.

Those are literally watched by automated and remote control machine guns, as well as 24/7 surveillance drones.

So you're military strategic insight is to sit in an open field, just outside of range of the remote control 50 cal turrets, and wait for the drone to drop a PGM?

Feel free to browse my comment history. I'm no apologist for terrorists acts, but I'm also not blind to the realities on the ground, and what obstacles any opposition militant group within Gaza would have to plan around.

Gaza is one of the most densely populated areas in the world, it's also majority landlocked and has been under a naval and air blockade for nearly 2 decades.

You can make the case about the selection of which some specific civilian areas Hamas utilizes are intended to maximize the outage if struck, but ultimately there is NOWHERE inside Gaza that isn't a civilian area, period. It's just a matter of degrees i.e. retail shops vs schools.

Maybe, but much less likely. They're probably foot soldiers and their orders came from their own gangs leadership, and not those responsible for ordering the assininatons. So that specific chain has effectively been broken.

I travel the country doing woke anti-racist training in blue states, and based anti-reverse racism training in red states.