The COVID Kabuki Dance

For John, BLUF:  I continue to think that there is still a lot to learn about COVID-19 and much of what we do to protect ourselves is a Kabuki Dance.  Nothing to see here; just move along.

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Study:  Asymptomatic and secondary infected individuals do not infect others

From the Behind the Black Blog, by Mr Robert Zimmerman, 22 November 2020.

Here is the lede plus two:

A new study published in the journal Nature has found that people who are either asymptomatic or undergoing a secondary illness of COVID-19 are simply not infectious, and don’t give the virus to others.

In other words, it appears that the only time people can infect others is when they have the virus for the first time, and only when they are symptomatic.  Lock downs and the use of masks by the healthy accomplish nothing.  All you need to do is quarantine the symptomatic patient, as human societies have been doing for centuries and centuries.

To once again emphasize this point, wearing masks if you are healthy and not sick protects no one.  Social distancing if you are not sick protects no one.  Shutting down businesses, such as reducing capacities at restaurants so they can’t make a profit, protects no one.  Curfews protect no one.

I look forward to clarity on this issue.  I got the first article from Science Fiction Author Sarah Hoyt (Via InstaPundit), who also sent along this item, from The Critic, a UK web site, "The Covid Physician’s true coronavirus timeline:  'My experience is no one but the government and mainstream media are sharing apocalyptic Covid-19 death experiences with me'”.

I am still dancing the dance, because one never knows which steps are of high value.

Hat tip to the InstaPundit.

Regards  —  Cliff

Nancy Spinning

For John, BLUF:  House Speaker Nancy Pelosi is spinning the Impeachment so hard that one wonders if she has lost the bubble, or worse, lost her way.  It is sad to watch.  Perhaps another serious case of Trump Derangement Syndrome.  Nothing to see here; just move along.

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She's Completely Lost It: Now Pelosi Is Claiming 'There Was No Acquittal'

From PJ Media, by Writer Jim Treacher, 18 February 2020.

Here is the lede:

If you were wondering how Nancy Pelosi has been handling the events of the past few months, it's safe to say she's not taking it well.  She's been keeping a low profile after making a spectacle of herself at the 2020 State of the Union address, but over the weekend she gave an interview with CNN's Christiane Amanpour that must be seen to be believed.  If reality won't do what Nancy wants, she'll just deny it's happening to her.

And here is part of the interchange between Speaker Pelosi and Ms Amanpour:

Amanpour:  What about, though, the fact that the president seems liberated? And this is about Democratic politics, so I'm not asking you to criticize here.  But he was acquitted, his poll ratings are higher...

Pelosi:  He was not... there was no acquittal. You can't have an acquittal unless you have a trial.  And you can't have a trial when you have witnesses and documents.  So he can say he was acquitted, and the headlines can say "Acquitted," but he's impeached forever.  Branded with that and not vindicated.  And even the senators were saying, "Yes, it wasn't right."  But didn't have the courage to act upon that.

Amanpour:  Except for?

Pelosi:  Except for Mitt Romney.  God bless him. And then the president criticized him for using his faith to do something he knew was wrong...

Impeached for ever?.  Like former President Bill Clinton?

The issue isn't what history teachers and professors think 50 years from now, but what voters think in November 2020,  There is some indication that many voters don't agree with Ms Pelosi.

Hat tip to the InstaPundit.

Regards  —  Cliff

What's the Dif?

For John, BLUF:  So is The Old Gray Lady now the publicist for the FBI.  Wouldn't that be a violation of Contract Law, services rendered without payment, a violation of the Antideficiency Act?.  Nothing to see here; just move along.

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F.B.I. Used Informant to Investigate Russia Ties to Campaign, Not to Spy, as Trump Claims

From The Old Gray Lady, by Reporters Adam Goldman, Mark Mazzetti and Matthew Rosenberg, 18 May 2018.

Here is the lede plus one:

President Trump accused the F.B.I. on Friday, without evidence, of sending a spy to secretly infiltrate his 2016 campaign “for political purposes” even before the bureau had any inkling of the “phony Russia hoax.”

In fact, F.B.I. agents sent an informant to talk to two campaign advisers only after they received evidence that the pair had suspicious contacts linked to Russia during the campaign.  The informant, an American academic who teaches in Britain, made contact late that summer with one campaign adviser, George Papadopoulos, according to people familiar with the matter.  He also met repeatedly in the ensuing months with the other aide, Carter Page, who was also under F.B.I. scrutiny for his ties to Russia.

"In fact"?  How do we know this is a "fact"?

Because the FBI says so?  Officially?  Or to Congress?  Or in a leak to the newspaper?

Is this the same newspaper that Former FBI Director James Comey unethically leaked information about his conversations with the President while both were officials?♠

Then there is the whole issue of why this particular "spy" (Investigator) would be in jeopardy if the name were to ooze out?  If just an FBI Investigator hired on the spot market, it makes no sense.  If a CIA assets working traplines in other countries, then there should well be a concern, but that is someone a little more "high priced" that your average pickup investigator.  And who is funding all the travel and the money for a 1,500 word paper?♥

Hat tip to The Drudge Report.

Regards  —  Cliff

♠  Bonus Question.  If Mr Comey lied to the President, is that a Martha Stewart kind of crime, for which he should face jail time?
♥  Need a 1,500 word paper written for $3,000, contact me.

City Life and Nixon

For John, BLUF:  Spin Cycle.  Nothing to see here; just move along.

On City Life this AM♠ the Registrar of Deeds Dick Howe brought up President Richard Nixon and his enemies list and the IRS.  This was by way of saying that the IRS under President Obama going after Tea Party folks wasn't a new thing—and it wasn't.  However, the IRS Commissioner under President Nixon, Mr Donald Alexander, did a masterful job of resisting the Nixon reelection team from gaining IRS access.  Mr Alexander won and the Nixon Team lost on this one.  That President Nixon used the IRS to go after his enemies is a canard.

As for former SecDef Gates saying he wouldn't have done anything different, I am not sure that is a ringing endorsement of how the Administration handled the Benghazi Imbroglio.  More later, but it is time to hit the road for Lowell.  Enough of this time in the DC area.

Regards  —  Cliff

♠  Live feed over the Internet was perfect.  I am down in Reston, Virginia, and had no problem viewing the show and texting and calling in.