NEWS of the WORLD, which has begun operation.
NEWS of the WORLD will carry on this site's tradition.
Please read more NEWS of the WORLD news and commentary at
NEWS of the WORLD
If link fails, try pasting this URL into your browser bar.
Friday, November 12, 2021
NEWS of the WORLD launched
The Invisible Man is being folded into the new site,
NEWS of the WORLD, which has begun operation.
Though this Invisible Man site is ceasing publication,
NEWS of the WORLD will carry on this site's tradition.
Please read more NEWS of the WORLD news and commentary at
NEWS of the WORLD
If link fails, try pasting this URL into your browser bar.
NEWS of the WORLD, which has begun operation.
NEWS of the WORLD will carry on this site's tradition.
Please read more NEWS of the WORLD news and commentary at
NEWS of the WORLD
If link fails, try pasting this URL into your browser bar.
Saturday, November 6, 2021
You own your body;
the gov't does not
Say NO to mandatory vaccination
In America, the patient has the last word on her or his health care decisions. The government has NO SAY!Thursday, November 4, 2021
Mandate melee erupts
as states fight back
Governors hopping mad over Biden vax tyranny
GOP lawmakers see socialist scheme
to force health care on Americans;
lawsuits proliferate over
federal control of private health decisions
Associated Press account
https://www.usnews.com/news/business/articles/2021-11-04/gop-pushback-on-employer-vaccine-mandate-underway-in-states
Does the right to privacy concerning one's body
only apply to abortion? socialists are asked
to force health care on Americans;
lawsuits proliferate over
federal control of private health decisions
Associated Press account
https://www.usnews.com/news/business/articles/2021-11-04/gop-pushback-on-employer-vaccine-mandate-underway-in-states
Does the right to privacy concerning one's body
only apply to abortion? socialists are asked
China's secrecy on Wuhan lab
weakens pooh-pooh campaign
Drastic's cyber sleuths outline case for laboratory accident
Communist China's clampdown on information about the Wuhan covid outbreak undermines its claim that nothing untoward occurred. The world's experts lack basic information about the Wuhan outbreak, according to numerous published reports.
For example,
The chief scientist at the Wuhan Institute of Virology, Shi Zhengli, has said she had reviewed her notes and found nothing amiss, but evidently they have not been scrutinized by her U.S. or other foreign colleagues.
A recent U.S. intelligence assessment says,
https://www.dni.gov/files/ODNI/documents/assessments/Unclassified-Summary-of-Assessment-on-COVID-19-Origins.pdf
The intelligence units, as quoted by the summary, do not suggest that China's secrecy tends to undercut its stance that no lab leak occurred.
The summary, from the national intelligence director's office, says that one intelligence unit was moderately confident that the pandemic was sparked by a lab leak. It adds that four intelligence units and the National Intelligence Council leaned toward the "leap from an animal" theory. But they were extremely unsure of that scenario, for which they had only "low confidence." Analysts at three other intelligence units, the summary says, were divided between the "animal leap" and lab accident scenarios.
The summary explains that differences of opinion stem largely from the methods each agency uses to sift and analyze information. It avoids raising the possibility of undue political influence from the China lobby, which consists of American investors eager for "engagement" riches and Chinese communist-backed operatives.
Reporters Without Borders, an international activist group, reports that a Chinese journalist, imprisoned for her early pandemic reporting, is now near death. The group documents a number of other cases of China's harsh treatment of journalists who do not toe the party line.
Chinese covid reporter's harsh treatment
https://rsf.org/en/news/china-rsf-urges-release-covid-19-reporter-who-faces-impending-death
Drastic -- an acronym for 'Decentralized Radical Autonomous Search Team Investigating COVID-19' -- is a loose collection of internet activists investigating the origins of covid. The dogged information-mining of these activists has drawn both admiration and scorn from scientists. Yet, there is little doubt that the collective's work has knocked out the oft repeated charge that the lab leak scenario was merely an alt right "conspiracy theory" (as if communists would never conspire).
Drastic home page
https://drasticresearch.org/
Drastic's cyber activities are assuredly a menace to the desire of governments to control information. We can be sure that Beijing views Drastic with the same dim view that the U.S. and British governments have of Wikileaks. And, considering the complicity of major elements of the U.S. press and government in shielding communist China from criticism in the Wuhan matter, it is only a matter of time before the CIA is weighing measures for shutting down Drastic as a spy shop for a foreign government while the Justice Department obtains indictments of its leadership for the "crime" of Assange-style journalism.
Free press coalition opposes Assange extradition
https://invisiblepaul.blogspot.com/p/free-press-coalition-opposes-assange.html
Below is Drastic's summary of its case.
The Lab Leak Hypothesis
Virologists study dangerous viruses. They collect them from the wild, they study them in labs, and they genetically engineer them. One goal of their research is to help prevent future pandemics.
However, viruses have escaped from laboratories around the world on several occasions. New techniques for bioengineering can enable dangerous viruses to be created in research laboratories.
Previous pandemics such as SARS and MERS have arisen naturally as viruses jump from species to species and evolve through natural selection. The lab leak hypothesis proposes that the SARS-COV-2 virus responsible for Covid-19 did not arise naturally but escaped from a virology laboratory, the Wuhan Institute of Virology (WIV) [Segreto20] [Deigin21].
The Importance of the Hypothesis
If SARS-COV-2 did result from a lab leak then such research needs to be much more carefully controlled in order to prevent any future outbreak of an even more potent virus.
There is no suggestion that the leak was deliberate. The Wuhan Institute of Virology published their impressive results and collaborated openly with other virologists around the world. For example, their chief scientist Shi Zhengli collaborated closely with Ralph Baric of the University of North Carolina. The Wuhan Institute of Virology is a well respected member of the international community of virologists.
Until recently, any suggestion of a laboratory leak was discounted as an unsubstantiated far right conspiracy theory. However, as more and more evidence has accumulated many leading scientists now consider the theory plausible if not proven.
This paper should not be viewed as an attack on China. But rather, it provides a strong motivation to review the practice of virology internationally.
Beyond Reasonable Doubt
There will never be a mathematical proof that SARS-COV-2 is the result of a laboratory leak.
However there is now a large body of evidence to support a leak hypothesis. Taken collectively we believe that it proves the hypothesis well beyond any reasonable doubt. But the reader is encouraged to review the evidence and draw their own conclusions.
There is no absolute proof. But there is most certainly plenty of evidence.
Summary of the Evidence
Geography
The outbreak of a bat coronavirus occurred in the city which hosted the world’s leading bat coronavirus laboratory. This does not prove anything, but it certainly warrants investigation.
Moreover, the relevant horseshoe bats live 1500 kilometers from the laboratory. No explanation has been offered as to how the virus traveled to Wuhan. The Chinese CDC and WIV chief scientist Shi Zhengli have stated that the “wet markets” that sell exotic animals were not the source of the virus.
Natural precursors
A natural virus takes some time to adapt to a new host, as SARS-1 and MERS did. But SARS-COV-2 arose suddenly, fully formed and functional. Early genomes showed minimal variation, and it took many months and billions of infections in order for it to substantially improve upon the first variant (with the Beta and then Delta strains).
The virus is not particularly infectious to bats. So any natural evolution would require some other unknown intermediate host animal. (The coronavirus’s critical spike protein is very host species dependent.)
The WHO report stated that none of the hospitals in Hubei Province (in which Wuhan is located) reported any SARS-like viruses in the months before December 2019, so it is unlikely to have matured in humans. No other natural precursor has been found, despite an extensive search. (The direct precursors to SARS-1 and MERS were identified within several months of their outbreaks.)
The only currently known potential intermediate host is laboratory cell cultures and genetically engineered “humanized” mice which are commonly used for research into coronaviruses.
Laboratory Leaks
Laboratory leaks have occurred many times around the world. Examples include leaks of SARS-1 from Singapore and Taiwan in 2003 and Beijing in 2004, Foot and Mouth from the USA in 2004, Ebola from Germany in 2009, and Brucellosis from China in 2016.
A review of the WIV in 2017 by the US embassy had concerns about the institute’s biosecurity protocols. To their credit, the WIV had asked for help in improving their biosecurity.[Rogin21][Pompeo21][Liu20]
SARS-COV viruses were not considered particularly dangerous before 2020, and published papers indicate that much of the research both at the WIV and the University of North Carolina was conducted at Biosecurity Levels 2 and 3 (BSL-2, BSL-3). The WIV’s new high security BSL-4 facility was used for more dangerous viruses such as Ebola.
Chimera
The virus appears to be 96.1% similar to a genome RaTG13 which was released by the WIV in January 2020, after the outbreak.
The genome suggests that SARS-COV-2 was a chimera, a mixture between two or more viruses. This is because the “body” of the SARS-COV-2 is 98% similar to RaTG13 while the “head” of the virus (the tip of the spike protein) is significantly different.
Such chimeras do occur naturally. However, the two viruses need to infect the same cells in the same animal. No host has been found or proposed. (Evidence that pangolins were involved is now discounted.)
Modern technology makes it relatively easy to create such chimera’s in the laboratory, and this is often performed. They leave no obvious trace that the genome has been manipulated. There is no doubt that the WIV was engineering many such chimeras because they proudly published their results. Shi in 2007 and Baric in 2008 created chimeric viruses based on the SARS virus, with the most influential paper being [Menachery15]. A 2017 WIV paper reported eight chimeric viruses [Hu17].
Furin Cleavage Site
SARS-COV-2 has a “S1/S2 furin cleavage site” that had been known to greatly increase the potency of coronaviruses. This is not found naturally in other beta coronaviruses like SARS-COV-2 yet it is essential for SARS-COV-2 to be able to infect humans. Further, the actual genome that represents the cleavage site is unusual for a coronavirus, but is commonly used in the laboratory.
SARS-1 did not have a furin cleavage site.
Both the very effective spike protein and the furin cleavage site might possibly have arisen naturally. However, it seems extremely unlikely that both would have arisen together without any intermediate virus being discovered. The virus would need to win the genetic lottery twice while being restricted to a small, unknown population. Perhaps this is why it is the most infectious coronavirus in 100 years (much more infectious than SARS or MERS).
2013 Sick Bat Guano Miners
In 2013 six bat guano miners in Mojiang, Yunnan province became very ill with a SARS-like virus, and three died. This was well documented in a recently discovered master’s thesis published at the time by Li Xu [Latham20].
Samples of the virus were sent to the WIV, as they should have been, and some 293 other coronaviruses were then sampled around the cave. It seems likely that one of these formed the basis of SARS-COV-2 and is related to RaTG13.
Chief scientist Shi Zhengli had stated that the miners had died from a fungal infection [Qui20]. However, the subsequent discovery of Li’s thesis makes it clear that it was not a fungal infection. And SARS-1 was never prevalent in Yunnan.
Database Removal and Obfuscation
The WIV had published an important database of virus genetic sequences. However, in September 2019 they removed this database with the excuse that it was subject to cypher attacks, and they have not made it available to any researchers [Bostickson21]. This makes it impossible to determine the exact path of the development of SARS-COV-2.
In 2018 the WIV published the partial genome of BtCoV/4991 from the Mojiang caves. When RaTG13 was subsequently published in 2020, it was discovered to be an exact match. This shows that RaTG13 is the same as BtCoV/4991 and that the WIV had been studying the virus since at least 2018.
Sick WIV Workers
The U.S. government stated there was evidence that several workers at the WIV had become ill enough to require hospitalization in December 2019 [State21]. It is possible that they were infected with SARS-COV-2.
Shi said she was unaware of any sick workers at that time which would be untrue if the US government source is correct. She also said that serum samples were taken from workers around March 2020 and all proved negative for any SARS virus, but no verifiable details have been released. Given the general prevalence of Covid-19 in Wuhan by then that seems most unlikely even if the WIV is not the source of SARS-COV-2 [Quay21].
Eco Health Alliance and NIH Research Grants
The WIV was partially funded from the US Government via the Eco Health Alliance (EHA). EHA’s CEO Peter Daszak explained that it was relatively easy to add a different spike protein to a coronavirus, which was a useful way to study their potential for pandemics [Daszak19].
In 2018 the EHA applied for a Darpa [Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency] grant to develop novel chimeras and specifically to add furin cleavage sites [Drastic21]. That grant was declined due to Gain of Function concerns. They subsequently received smaller grants from the U.S. National Institutes of Health.
Early Contact Tracing
The WHO report described searches of hospital records and other sources and determined the beginning of the outbreak to be early December 2019 [WHO20]. However, there does not appear to have been any follow up on the earliest cases to test those people’s close contacts for SARS antibodies. This contact tracing has been very effective in containing outbreaks in Australia and elsewhere, and should be able to push the source back to a small number of initial cases.
The director of WIV biosafety, Yuan Zhiming, said that zero staff tested positive for antibodies, which would actually be surprising given that the virus was so prevalent in Wuhan [Global21]. ON 3 January 2019, the head of the CDC Robert Redfield offered to send a US team to help identify the origins of SARS-COV-2, but this was declined.
One explanation for these observations is that the Chinese government already knew the source, namely the WIV. Not proof, but yet more evidence.
Chinese Reaction
The Chinese government has reacted angrily to any suggestion of a laboratory leak and has obstructed any investigation. They have prevented laboratory workers from being interviewed, or their laboratory notes being reviewed by external parties.
Further, the Chinese government has forbidden other Chinese researchers from publishing any papers relating to the origins SARS-COV-2 [Kirchgaessner21].
The Chinese government has conducted their own investigation which includes the sampling of some 80,000 animals. They would certainly refute the lab leak hypothesis if they could.
Rebuttal of the Lab Leak Hypothesis
Linage A and B
An unusual feature of SARS-COV-2 is that all samples appear to be a direct descendant of a single case, a 39 year old man seen at a Wuhan PLA Hospital.
But Nature published an article claiming that there were in fact two distinct lineages A and B of SARS-COV-2 prior to 28 February 2019 [Mallapaty21]. They assert that this could only happen if there were not one but two different laboratory leaks, and so “puts a dagger through the heart” of the laboratory leak hypothesis. Strong words indeed.
However, this article is based on an unreviewed preprint on a discussion board. The difference in the lineages is based on just two nucleotides C8782 and T28144, which could have easily evolved naturally after a lab leak in October or November. Indeed, [WHO21] estimates that the most recent common ancestor was 11 December 2019, well after the beginning of the outbreak in late November.
RaTG13 is Too Different
RaTG13 has over 1000 different bases than SARS-COV-2 and it has been argued that there are too many scattered differences to be the result of genetic engineering. However, most of the differences are concentrated in the spike protein “head” area, and not the “body” of the virus which suggests a chimera, whether man made or natural.
The intermediate virus may then have had many generations in cell cultures and humanized mice which would have introduced random changes throughout the virus. Such changes are known to happen at a faster rate than in natural evolution.
The significance of RaTG13 is to show that the virus is a chimera, and that it arose in the Mojiang caves which the WIV had studied. But the actual source may actually be some other closely related virus known only to the WIV. The DARPA grant application says that they had “>180 SARSr-CoV strains sequenced”, most unpublished.
RaTG13 is just a series of letters in a text file that was published after the outbreak. It might not even be the exact genome of any virus and it has not been independently verified. [Deigin21a] (Steven Carl presents evidence that RaTG13 was indeed fabricated [Carl21], [Zhang20], [Rahalkar20].)
The Furin Cleavage Site Encoding
The unusual CGG encoding within the furin cleavage site does occur naturally in about 5% of the arginine’s amino acid codons. There are two of them, so that is 0.25% likely, and certainly not impossible. It is only evidence, not proof.
The Furin cleavage site was also inserted out of frame, meaning that it was inserted in the middle of an existing three nucleotide codon. That excludes certain natural processes, but could have been manipulated. Regardless, it evidently works very well.
What is certain is that having both the furin site and the effective spike protein is very unusual.
Engineering SARS-COV-2 is Beyond Current Technology
It is now relatively easy to engineer a virus to produce any desired protein, but it is extremely difficult to engineer a protein that will have a particular function. In particular, to design a spike protein from first principles that fits snugly into the human ACE2 receptor is beyond current technology. So it is argued that it could not have been engineered.
In 2007 Shi’s group determined that a relatively short part of the spike protein is responsible for binding to different species [Segreto20]. New models to predict human ACE2 affinity have been developed. Subsequent reproduction in cell cultures or humanized mice could refine that sequence to produce SARS-COV-2.
What is certain is that laboratories regularly create chimeras that would be unlikely to occur naturally.
The WIV Cannot Disprove a Leak
Shi Zhengli has complained that it is unreasonable to expect the lab to prove that something did not happen. To prove the non-existence of an event.
However, a lab leak is likely if and only if the WIV was working on or had created a virus that was very similar to the initial SARS-COV-2. Evidence of that would be in their lab notes. Indeed, Shi had earlier said that she had carefully reviewed all lab notes and said “none of the sequences matched those of the viruses her team had sampled from bat caves” (emphasis added). Note that she did not say that there were no engineered sequences that matched SARS-COV-2. An independent review of those same notes would help resolve the issue.
Shi had made misleading statements about the miner’s disease being fungal as well as the source of RaTG13. Peter Daszak had also stated that no bats were kept at the institute, even though there were published videos showing such bats.
Further reading
Expert urges end to 'pandemic virus' research
https://washingtonpost.com/opinions/2021/10/07/manipulating-viruses-risking-pandemics-is-too-dangerous-its-time-stop/
That writer's profile
http://www.sculptingevolution.org/kevin-m-esvelt
Newsweek: Drastic's probe of Wuhan virus lab
https://www.newsweek.com/exclusive-how-amateur-sleuths-broke-wuhan-lab-story-embarrassed-media-1596958
For example,
✓ No record exists of an international scientific review of critical Wuhan virus lab notes that were made during the runup to the outbreak of covid.Though initially soft on the Chinese information gap, the World Health Organization's director, Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus, has called for audits of Wuhan laboratories, including the Wuhan Institute of Virology, which some scientists believe may be the source of the virus that caused the first infections in China.
✓ A crucial lab database that could have bolstered a truthful claim that no lab leak had occurred was taken offline shortly before the pandemic came to public attention.
✓ China refuses international on-site investigations.
✓ Chinese authorities have classified as secret a trove of Wuhan virus papers written by Chinese scientists.
The chief scientist at the Wuhan Institute of Virology, Shi Zhengli, has said she had reviewed her notes and found nothing amiss, but evidently they have not been scrutinized by her U.S. or other foreign colleagues.
A recent U.S. intelligence assessment says,
China’s cooperation most likely would be needed to reach a conclusive assessment of the origins of COVID-19. Beijing, however, continues to hinder the global investigation, resist sharing information and blames other countries, including the United States.The summary then went on to excuse the communist clampdown:
These actions reflect, in part, China’s government’s own uncertainty about where an investigation could lead as well as its frustration [that] the international community is using the issue to exert political pressure on China.Unclassified summary of intel report
https://www.dni.gov/files/ODNI/documents/assessments/Unclassified-Summary-of-Assessment-on-COVID-19-Origins.pdf
The intelligence units, as quoted by the summary, do not suggest that China's secrecy tends to undercut its stance that no lab leak occurred.
The summary, from the national intelligence director's office, says that one intelligence unit was moderately confident that the pandemic was sparked by a lab leak. It adds that four intelligence units and the National Intelligence Council leaned toward the "leap from an animal" theory. But they were extremely unsure of that scenario, for which they had only "low confidence." Analysts at three other intelligence units, the summary says, were divided between the "animal leap" and lab accident scenarios.
The summary explains that differences of opinion stem largely from the methods each agency uses to sift and analyze information. It avoids raising the possibility of undue political influence from the China lobby, which consists of American investors eager for "engagement" riches and Chinese communist-backed operatives.
Reporters Without Borders, an international activist group, reports that a Chinese journalist, imprisoned for her early pandemic reporting, is now near death. The group documents a number of other cases of China's harsh treatment of journalists who do not toe the party line.
Chinese covid reporter's harsh treatment
https://rsf.org/en/news/china-rsf-urges-release-covid-19-reporter-who-faces-impending-death
Drastic -- an acronym for 'Decentralized Radical Autonomous Search Team Investigating COVID-19' -- is a loose collection of internet activists investigating the origins of covid. The dogged information-mining of these activists has drawn both admiration and scorn from scientists. Yet, there is little doubt that the collective's work has knocked out the oft repeated charge that the lab leak scenario was merely an alt right "conspiracy theory" (as if communists would never conspire).
Drastic home page
https://drasticresearch.org/
Drastic's cyber activities are assuredly a menace to the desire of governments to control information. We can be sure that Beijing views Drastic with the same dim view that the U.S. and British governments have of Wikileaks. And, considering the complicity of major elements of the U.S. press and government in shielding communist China from criticism in the Wuhan matter, it is only a matter of time before the CIA is weighing measures for shutting down Drastic as a spy shop for a foreign government while the Justice Department obtains indictments of its leadership for the "crime" of Assange-style journalism.
Free press coalition opposes Assange extradition
https://invisiblepaul.blogspot.com/p/free-press-coalition-opposes-assange.html
Below is Drastic's summary of its case.
The Lab Leak Hypothesis
Virologists study dangerous viruses. They collect them from the wild, they study them in labs, and they genetically engineer them. One goal of their research is to help prevent future pandemics.
However, viruses have escaped from laboratories around the world on several occasions. New techniques for bioengineering can enable dangerous viruses to be created in research laboratories.
Previous pandemics such as SARS and MERS have arisen naturally as viruses jump from species to species and evolve through natural selection. The lab leak hypothesis proposes that the SARS-COV-2 virus responsible for Covid-19 did not arise naturally but escaped from a virology laboratory, the Wuhan Institute of Virology (WIV) [Segreto20] [Deigin21].
The Importance of the Hypothesis
If SARS-COV-2 did result from a lab leak then such research needs to be much more carefully controlled in order to prevent any future outbreak of an even more potent virus.
There is no suggestion that the leak was deliberate. The Wuhan Institute of Virology published their impressive results and collaborated openly with other virologists around the world. For example, their chief scientist Shi Zhengli collaborated closely with Ralph Baric of the University of North Carolina. The Wuhan Institute of Virology is a well respected member of the international community of virologists.
Until recently, any suggestion of a laboratory leak was discounted as an unsubstantiated far right conspiracy theory. However, as more and more evidence has accumulated many leading scientists now consider the theory plausible if not proven.
This paper should not be viewed as an attack on China. But rather, it provides a strong motivation to review the practice of virology internationally.
Beyond Reasonable Doubt
There will never be a mathematical proof that SARS-COV-2 is the result of a laboratory leak.
However there is now a large body of evidence to support a leak hypothesis. Taken collectively we believe that it proves the hypothesis well beyond any reasonable doubt. But the reader is encouraged to review the evidence and draw their own conclusions.
There is no absolute proof. But there is most certainly plenty of evidence.
Summary of the Evidence
Geography
The outbreak of a bat coronavirus occurred in the city which hosted the world’s leading bat coronavirus laboratory. This does not prove anything, but it certainly warrants investigation.
Moreover, the relevant horseshoe bats live 1500 kilometers from the laboratory. No explanation has been offered as to how the virus traveled to Wuhan. The Chinese CDC and WIV chief scientist Shi Zhengli have stated that the “wet markets” that sell exotic animals were not the source of the virus.
Natural precursors
A natural virus takes some time to adapt to a new host, as SARS-1 and MERS did. But SARS-COV-2 arose suddenly, fully formed and functional. Early genomes showed minimal variation, and it took many months and billions of infections in order for it to substantially improve upon the first variant (with the Beta and then Delta strains).
The virus is not particularly infectious to bats. So any natural evolution would require some other unknown intermediate host animal. (The coronavirus’s critical spike protein is very host species dependent.)
The WHO report stated that none of the hospitals in Hubei Province (in which Wuhan is located) reported any SARS-like viruses in the months before December 2019, so it is unlikely to have matured in humans. No other natural precursor has been found, despite an extensive search. (The direct precursors to SARS-1 and MERS were identified within several months of their outbreaks.)
The only currently known potential intermediate host is laboratory cell cultures and genetically engineered “humanized” mice which are commonly used for research into coronaviruses.
Laboratory Leaks
Laboratory leaks have occurred many times around the world. Examples include leaks of SARS-1 from Singapore and Taiwan in 2003 and Beijing in 2004, Foot and Mouth from the USA in 2004, Ebola from Germany in 2009, and Brucellosis from China in 2016.
A review of the WIV in 2017 by the US embassy had concerns about the institute’s biosecurity protocols. To their credit, the WIV had asked for help in improving their biosecurity.[Rogin21][Pompeo21][Liu20]
SARS-COV viruses were not considered particularly dangerous before 2020, and published papers indicate that much of the research both at the WIV and the University of North Carolina was conducted at Biosecurity Levels 2 and 3 (BSL-2, BSL-3). The WIV’s new high security BSL-4 facility was used for more dangerous viruses such as Ebola.
Chimera
The virus appears to be 96.1% similar to a genome RaTG13 which was released by the WIV in January 2020, after the outbreak.
The genome suggests that SARS-COV-2 was a chimera, a mixture between two or more viruses. This is because the “body” of the SARS-COV-2 is 98% similar to RaTG13 while the “head” of the virus (the tip of the spike protein) is significantly different.
Such chimeras do occur naturally. However, the two viruses need to infect the same cells in the same animal. No host has been found or proposed. (Evidence that pangolins were involved is now discounted.)
Modern technology makes it relatively easy to create such chimera’s in the laboratory, and this is often performed. They leave no obvious trace that the genome has been manipulated. There is no doubt that the WIV was engineering many such chimeras because they proudly published their results. Shi in 2007 and Baric in 2008 created chimeric viruses based on the SARS virus, with the most influential paper being [Menachery15]. A 2017 WIV paper reported eight chimeric viruses [Hu17].
Furin Cleavage Site
SARS-COV-2 has a “S1/S2 furin cleavage site” that had been known to greatly increase the potency of coronaviruses. This is not found naturally in other beta coronaviruses like SARS-COV-2 yet it is essential for SARS-COV-2 to be able to infect humans. Further, the actual genome that represents the cleavage site is unusual for a coronavirus, but is commonly used in the laboratory.
SARS-1 did not have a furin cleavage site.
Both the very effective spike protein and the furin cleavage site might possibly have arisen naturally. However, it seems extremely unlikely that both would have arisen together without any intermediate virus being discovered. The virus would need to win the genetic lottery twice while being restricted to a small, unknown population. Perhaps this is why it is the most infectious coronavirus in 100 years (much more infectious than SARS or MERS).
2013 Sick Bat Guano Miners
In 2013 six bat guano miners in Mojiang, Yunnan province became very ill with a SARS-like virus, and three died. This was well documented in a recently discovered master’s thesis published at the time by Li Xu [Latham20].
Samples of the virus were sent to the WIV, as they should have been, and some 293 other coronaviruses were then sampled around the cave. It seems likely that one of these formed the basis of SARS-COV-2 and is related to RaTG13.
Chief scientist Shi Zhengli had stated that the miners had died from a fungal infection [Qui20]. However, the subsequent discovery of Li’s thesis makes it clear that it was not a fungal infection. And SARS-1 was never prevalent in Yunnan.
Database Removal and Obfuscation
The WIV had published an important database of virus genetic sequences. However, in September 2019 they removed this database with the excuse that it was subject to cypher attacks, and they have not made it available to any researchers [Bostickson21]. This makes it impossible to determine the exact path of the development of SARS-COV-2.
In 2018 the WIV published the partial genome of BtCoV/4991 from the Mojiang caves. When RaTG13 was subsequently published in 2020, it was discovered to be an exact match. This shows that RaTG13 is the same as BtCoV/4991 and that the WIV had been studying the virus since at least 2018.
Sick WIV Workers
The U.S. government stated there was evidence that several workers at the WIV had become ill enough to require hospitalization in December 2019 [State21]. It is possible that they were infected with SARS-COV-2.
Shi said she was unaware of any sick workers at that time which would be untrue if the US government source is correct. She also said that serum samples were taken from workers around March 2020 and all proved negative for any SARS virus, but no verifiable details have been released. Given the general prevalence of Covid-19 in Wuhan by then that seems most unlikely even if the WIV is not the source of SARS-COV-2 [Quay21].
Eco Health Alliance and NIH Research Grants
The WIV was partially funded from the US Government via the Eco Health Alliance (EHA). EHA’s CEO Peter Daszak explained that it was relatively easy to add a different spike protein to a coronavirus, which was a useful way to study their potential for pandemics [Daszak19].
In 2018 the EHA applied for a Darpa [Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency] grant to develop novel chimeras and specifically to add furin cleavage sites [Drastic21]. That grant was declined due to Gain of Function concerns. They subsequently received smaller grants from the U.S. National Institutes of Health.
Early Contact Tracing
The WHO report described searches of hospital records and other sources and determined the beginning of the outbreak to be early December 2019 [WHO20]. However, there does not appear to have been any follow up on the earliest cases to test those people’s close contacts for SARS antibodies. This contact tracing has been very effective in containing outbreaks in Australia and elsewhere, and should be able to push the source back to a small number of initial cases.
The director of WIV biosafety, Yuan Zhiming, said that zero staff tested positive for antibodies, which would actually be surprising given that the virus was so prevalent in Wuhan [Global21]. ON 3 January 2019, the head of the CDC Robert Redfield offered to send a US team to help identify the origins of SARS-COV-2, but this was declined.
One explanation for these observations is that the Chinese government already knew the source, namely the WIV. Not proof, but yet more evidence.
Chinese Reaction
The Chinese government has reacted angrily to any suggestion of a laboratory leak and has obstructed any investigation. They have prevented laboratory workers from being interviewed, or their laboratory notes being reviewed by external parties.
Further, the Chinese government has forbidden other Chinese researchers from publishing any papers relating to the origins SARS-COV-2 [Kirchgaessner21].
The Chinese government has conducted their own investigation which includes the sampling of some 80,000 animals. They would certainly refute the lab leak hypothesis if they could.
Rebuttal of the Lab Leak Hypothesis
Linage A and B
An unusual feature of SARS-COV-2 is that all samples appear to be a direct descendant of a single case, a 39 year old man seen at a Wuhan PLA Hospital.
But Nature published an article claiming that there were in fact two distinct lineages A and B of SARS-COV-2 prior to 28 February 2019 [Mallapaty21]. They assert that this could only happen if there were not one but two different laboratory leaks, and so “puts a dagger through the heart” of the laboratory leak hypothesis. Strong words indeed.
However, this article is based on an unreviewed preprint on a discussion board. The difference in the lineages is based on just two nucleotides C8782 and T28144, which could have easily evolved naturally after a lab leak in October or November. Indeed, [WHO21] estimates that the most recent common ancestor was 11 December 2019, well after the beginning of the outbreak in late November.
RaTG13 is Too Different
RaTG13 has over 1000 different bases than SARS-COV-2 and it has been argued that there are too many scattered differences to be the result of genetic engineering. However, most of the differences are concentrated in the spike protein “head” area, and not the “body” of the virus which suggests a chimera, whether man made or natural.
The intermediate virus may then have had many generations in cell cultures and humanized mice which would have introduced random changes throughout the virus. Such changes are known to happen at a faster rate than in natural evolution.
The significance of RaTG13 is to show that the virus is a chimera, and that it arose in the Mojiang caves which the WIV had studied. But the actual source may actually be some other closely related virus known only to the WIV. The DARPA grant application says that they had “>180 SARSr-CoV strains sequenced”, most unpublished.
RaTG13 is just a series of letters in a text file that was published after the outbreak. It might not even be the exact genome of any virus and it has not been independently verified. [Deigin21a] (Steven Carl presents evidence that RaTG13 was indeed fabricated [Carl21], [Zhang20], [Rahalkar20].)
The Furin Cleavage Site Encoding
The unusual CGG encoding within the furin cleavage site does occur naturally in about 5% of the arginine’s amino acid codons. There are two of them, so that is 0.25% likely, and certainly not impossible. It is only evidence, not proof.
The Furin cleavage site was also inserted out of frame, meaning that it was inserted in the middle of an existing three nucleotide codon. That excludes certain natural processes, but could have been manipulated. Regardless, it evidently works very well.
What is certain is that having both the furin site and the effective spike protein is very unusual.
Engineering SARS-COV-2 is Beyond Current Technology
It is now relatively easy to engineer a virus to produce any desired protein, but it is extremely difficult to engineer a protein that will have a particular function. In particular, to design a spike protein from first principles that fits snugly into the human ACE2 receptor is beyond current technology. So it is argued that it could not have been engineered.
In 2007 Shi’s group determined that a relatively short part of the spike protein is responsible for binding to different species [Segreto20]. New models to predict human ACE2 affinity have been developed. Subsequent reproduction in cell cultures or humanized mice could refine that sequence to produce SARS-COV-2.
What is certain is that laboratories regularly create chimeras that would be unlikely to occur naturally.
The WIV Cannot Disprove a Leak
Shi Zhengli has complained that it is unreasonable to expect the lab to prove that something did not happen. To prove the non-existence of an event.
However, a lab leak is likely if and only if the WIV was working on or had created a virus that was very similar to the initial SARS-COV-2. Evidence of that would be in their lab notes. Indeed, Shi had earlier said that she had carefully reviewed all lab notes and said “none of the sequences matched those of the viruses her team had sampled from bat caves” (emphasis added). Note that she did not say that there were no engineered sequences that matched SARS-COV-2. An independent review of those same notes would help resolve the issue.
Shi had made misleading statements about the miner’s disease being fungal as well as the source of RaTG13. Peter Daszak had also stated that no bats were kept at the institute, even though there were published videos showing such bats.
Further reading
Expert urges end to 'pandemic virus' research
https://washingtonpost.com/opinions/2021/10/07/manipulating-viruses-risking-pandemics-is-too-dangerous-its-time-stop/
That writer's profile
http://www.sculptingevolution.org/kevin-m-esvelt
Newsweek: Drastic's probe of Wuhan virus lab
https://www.newsweek.com/exclusive-how-amateur-sleuths-broke-wuhan-lab-story-embarrassed-media-1596958
Monday, November 1, 2021
How to keep the people in line
and expand welfare for the rich
How can the merchants of death keep raking in their welfare dollars from the U.S. Treasury without a war?
They can't. Thus, they must:
✓ Have a brushfire war every few years, but make heroic efforts to avoid winning.
✓ Try to extend the Cold War past its expiration date.
✓ Stage a false flag operation and announce a war on terror.
✓ More brushfire wars.
✓ When war is for some political reason not an option, have a war on covid. Try to get people to suspect a virus under every bed.
For any of the above, read Orwell's 1984 for advice on how to control the citizenry. Also read Lenin's What is to Be Done?, which is a primer on the methods of subversion and conspiracy. Much can also be learned from the current pack of communists controlling China.
The belief that the American people have, both in a strong military and respect for members of the Armed Forces and veterans, should never be used as a smokescreen by hives of large-scale looters with deep ties to the Deep State axis that has mushroomed up from northern Virginia to Baltimore.
It goes without saying that the plunderers and killers must have the cooperation of the press. The Deep State cannot exist without either direct control of or intimidation of the press. The idea that the American people, or any other people, should see the inner workings of what their Deep State-ridden governments do is intolerable. Thus, the Deep State's secret police organ, the CIA, must make an example of Assange. "Crucify him! Crucify him!"
Heaven forfend that the people are permitted to vote with their eyes open! They must be kept blind! Otherwise Babylon the Great will collapse atop the robber billionaires and their communist allies.
They can't. Thus, they must:
✓ Have a brushfire war every few years, but make heroic efforts to avoid winning.
✓ Try to extend the Cold War past its expiration date.
✓ Stage a false flag operation and announce a war on terror.
✓ More brushfire wars.
✓ When war is for some political reason not an option, have a war on covid. Try to get people to suspect a virus under every bed.
For any of the above, read Orwell's 1984 for advice on how to control the citizenry. Also read Lenin's What is to Be Done?, which is a primer on the methods of subversion and conspiracy. Much can also be learned from the current pack of communists controlling China.
The belief that the American people have, both in a strong military and respect for members of the Armed Forces and veterans, should never be used as a smokescreen by hives of large-scale looters with deep ties to the Deep State axis that has mushroomed up from northern Virginia to Baltimore.
It goes without saying that the plunderers and killers must have the cooperation of the press. The Deep State cannot exist without either direct control of or intimidation of the press. The idea that the American people, or any other people, should see the inner workings of what their Deep State-ridden governments do is intolerable. Thus, the Deep State's secret police organ, the CIA, must make an example of Assange. "Crucify him! Crucify him!"
Heaven forfend that the people are permitted to vote with their eyes open! They must be kept blind! Otherwise Babylon the Great will collapse atop the robber billionaires and their communist allies.
Tuesday, October 26, 2021
Data clash on vaccine's potency
as FDA clears its use for children
Conflicting data over the effectiveness of a covid vaccine emerged today during the controversy over immunization of children.
Pfizer-BioNtech's study, released today, shows that a low dose of its vaccine is 90.7 percent effective in children aged 5 to almost 12. Yet a separate massive study of veterans, released Oct. 14, shows that the formerly effective covid vaccines have all fallen off dramatically in potency, with Pfizer-BioNtech's plummeting from more than 90 percent effective in March to about 50 percent by August.
Neither study has been peer reviewed.
Pfizer-BioNTech presented data from a study of 1,518 children who received the 10-microgram vaccine — one-third the adult dose — and another 750 who received a placebo. The vaccinated volunteers were 90.7 percent less likely to develop symptomatic covid, and when they did become ill, their symptoms were less severe, the researchers said.
Earlier today an FDA advisory panel urged emergency use of the vaccine on children.
Pfizer-BioNtech scientists had argued that earlier this year covid was one of the top 10 killers of children in the 5- to 12-year age range. The FDA's advisers felt that those children who are at risk should be permitted to have the vaccine. The drug company's study also pointed out that schoolchildren, who may not get sick, can carry the disease home. But StatNews reported,
It seems plausible that the aged and infirm were strongly represented among the veterans studied. Yet, during the early stage of the vaccination of veterans, effectiveness was reportedly high. Does this rule out immunological problems as a major factor in the drops in efficacy? Probably. Drops in efficacy are generally tied to virus mutations, such as the Delta variant, which, according to the a July statement of the American Society for Microbiology, was by then responsible for more than 83 percent of U.S. cases.
StatNews said,
But the Pfizer study reports that its vaccine was successful in 90.7 percent of children who had not previously shown any covid-like symptoms. That caveat may be meaningful, as it strongly tends to select in favor of altogether healthy children -- even though a fair representation would include some children who are not in excellent health. (Ethical problems may have entered the picture here.)
Pfizer-BioNtech research paper
https://www.fda.gov/media/153409/download
Cohn et al on vaccine potency drop
https://www.medrxiv.org/content/10.1101/2021.10.13.21264966v1
Cohn and her colleagues wrote,
Pfizer-BioNtech's study, released today, shows that a low dose of its vaccine is 90.7 percent effective in children aged 5 to almost 12. Yet a separate massive study of veterans, released Oct. 14, shows that the formerly effective covid vaccines have all fallen off dramatically in potency, with Pfizer-BioNtech's plummeting from more than 90 percent effective in March to about 50 percent by August.
Neither study has been peer reviewed.
Pfizer-BioNTech presented data from a study of 1,518 children who received the 10-microgram vaccine — one-third the adult dose — and another 750 who received a placebo. The vaccinated volunteers were 90.7 percent less likely to develop symptomatic covid, and when they did become ill, their symptoms were less severe, the researchers said.
Earlier today an FDA advisory panel urged emergency use of the vaccine on children.
Pfizer-BioNtech scientists had argued that earlier this year covid was one of the top 10 killers of children in the 5- to 12-year age range. The FDA's advisers felt that those children who are at risk should be permitted to have the vaccine. The drug company's study also pointed out that schoolchildren, who may not get sick, can carry the disease home. But StatNews reported,
Several panelists expressed concern about whether the decision could lead to vaccine mandates — something Peter Marks, the head of the FDA’s Center for Biologics Evaluation and Research, assured them was unlikely. At the beginning of the day, Marks said that thoughts about vaccine mandates should not impact the panel’s decision.The Pfizer-BioNtech study occurred sometime after July 16, when its study of teens and 12-year-olds ended. No specific start date for the child study is given, though a cutoff date of Oct. 8 is given. Hence the child immunizations occurred while the Pfizer vaccine's potency was on the decline among veterans.
It seems plausible that the aged and infirm were strongly represented among the veterans studied. Yet, during the early stage of the vaccination of veterans, effectiveness was reportedly high. Does this rule out immunological problems as a major factor in the drops in efficacy? Probably. Drops in efficacy are generally tied to virus mutations, such as the Delta variant, which, according to the a July statement of the American Society for Microbiology, was by then responsible for more than 83 percent of U.S. cases.
StatNews said,
The panel weighed the benefits of preventing covid against the risks of the vaccine, in particular the risk of the heart conditions myocarditis and pericarditis, which, though hard to measure exactly, appear to occur once per every 10,000 or so in vaccinated older boys and young men. The cases seen after use of the vaccine appear to be milder than regular cases of the inflammatory condition, and last for a shorter time.According to the study of veterans, which was carried out from Feb. 1 to Aug. 13, the effectiveness of full vaccination -- derailed by the rise of the Delta variant -- had plunged.
But the Pfizer study reports that its vaccine was successful in 90.7 percent of children who had not previously shown any covid-like symptoms. That caveat may be meaningful, as it strongly tends to select in favor of altogether healthy children -- even though a fair representation would include some children who are not in excellent health. (Ethical problems may have entered the picture here.)
Pfizer-BioNtech research paper
https://www.fda.gov/media/153409/download
Cohn et al on vaccine potency drop
https://www.medrxiv.org/content/10.1101/2021.10.13.21264966v1
Cohn and her colleagues wrote,
National data on COVID-19 vaccine breakthrough infections [infections after full vaccination] is inadequate but urgently needed to determine U.S. policy during the emergence of the Delta variant. We address this gap by comparing SARS CoV-2 infection by vaccination status from February 1, 2021 to August 13, 2021 in the Veterans Health Administration, covering 2.7% of the U.S. population. Vaccine protection declined by mid-August 2021, decreasing from 91.9% in March to 53.9% (p<0.01, n=619,755). Declines were greatest for the Janssen vaccine followed by Pfizer–BioNTech and Moderna. Patterns of breakthrough infection over time were consistent by age, despite rolling vaccine eligibility, implicating the Delta variant as the primary determinant of infection. Findings support continued efforts to increase vaccination and an immediate, national return to additional layers of protection against infection.
Sunday, October 24, 2021
Is the Fed really our friend?
Central banks stoke socialism
Neither The Invisible Man nor Mises Institute necessarily endorses any views expressed below.
By Jörg Guido Hülsmann
It is well known that socialism is a shortage economy. It is the economy of inefficiency and corruption, of indifferent workers and of bigwigs, of lacking spare parts, of lacking funds, of failure, of permanent reform needs and of constantly unsuccessful reforms. This concerns in particular total socialism, as it was realized in the Soviet Union or under National Socialism. But it is no less evident in the numerous partial socialisms that are featured in the real existing welfare state, in its numerous state “systems.”
Budget deficits year in, year out despite high contributions—that is the reality in the state pension system and in the state health system. The state education system is similar: declining student performance and growing illiteracy despite sky-rocketing expenditure. No private entrepreneur could afford to let the costs get out of hand in such a way. Anyone who is in competition has to keep improving. Only those who have a legal monopoly and can make use of taxpayers’ money if necessary do not need it.
Now there is one partial socialism that stands out from the usual array of failures. Here we see gains instead of losses. Here we often find all the other signs of a successfully run company, from the private legal form to the pinstripe-filled boardroom. We are talking about central banking. The term “central bank” actually refers quite clearly to a centrally planned economy. But when people talk about the Fed, the ECB or other central banks today, hardly anyone thinks that they are talking about an offspring of the socialist spirit. On the contrary, central banks are typically viewed as particularly “capitalist.” After all, what would be more capitalist than money? And what would be more closely related to money than a bank?
Upon closer inspection, however, it appears that this connotation may not be entirely correct. In the unbridled market economy, private property and competition prevail. Central banks, on the other hand, are usually state institutions. Even those central banks that are private-law organizations (as in the United States, Japan, and Switzerland) are subject to special laws and their directors are appointed by national governments. In addition, central banks always and everywhere enjoy a legal monopoly. Their banknotes and their deposit money are largely withdrawn from free competition. The market participants are compelled to use the money of the central banks.
This money is one of a kind. Indeed, it can basically be produced in unlimited quantities. The production of money by the private commercial banks is limited by their equity capital and also by the cash deposits of their customers. But central banks do not need equity or cash deposits. It is they who create cash. They can generate cash out of nothing and practically for free. Certain legal limits are set for them, but in times of crisis, as in 2008–09 and in 2020–21, these limits can be relaxed quickly and dramatically. If necessary, they can also be abolished entirely.
Central banks therefore have potentially tremendous power. If only let loose, they can control all of the economy and society. There is almost no limit to the number of new loans they can issue. The can provide these loans to some and deny them to others. And by implication they can also control the use of all available resources. After all, labour usually moves where it is best paid. Raw materials and capital goods are typically sold to those who offer the highest prices. If you control the printing press, you can also let the real resources flow exactly where you think it is right. Whether this use of funds is also profitable plays a rather subordinate role for central banks (unlike commercial banks). You do not have to work hard and invest well to cover losses. One push of a button is enough.
Central banks are therefore made for do-gooders. He who runs a central bank does not need to do painstaking educational work in order to bring about any social change. The humanitarian with the printing press can finance all changes he wishes for at the push of a button. He can just pay other people to do what he wants. He does not need any savings or capital for this. He does not need a democratic majority either. As long as he has the printing press under control, he [need not] by and large give a damn about what other people think or wish.
This momentous fact has not escaped the attention of socialist theorists. The Saint-Simonians in France had already grasped it at the beginning of the nineteenth century. They understood that the economy of a country could be controlled particularly easily and safely with the help of the printing press. A few years later, the demand for the “centralization of credit in the hands of the state through a national bank with state capital and an exclusive monopoly” soon also held center stage in the 1848 Communist Manifesto by Marx and Engels.
Unsurprisingly, the enormous possibilities of creating money from nothing have been used again and again to finance state industrial policy and socialist experiments. In the 1970s, British historian Antony Sutton reported that some of New York’s Wall Street banks had financed the radical transformation of traditional European societies. They supported Lenin and Stalin as well as Adolf Hitler with billions of dollars. That would not have been possible without the refinancing from the American central bank.
In our day, too, the historical connection between the central banking system and political utopias is being brought back to life. This time it appears in the form of a “green” and egalitarian transformation of the economy and society. The directors of the ECB [European Central Bank] and the Fed have already officially committed to this.
The new humanitarians with the printing press are undoubtedly a great danger to humanity. They threaten everyone’s prosperity by channeling scarce resources into unprofitable (and therefore unsustainable) uses. But they also threaten the free social order as a whole, in that they are preparing to disempower the open competition of all social forces. They want to replace this competition with the rule of a nonelected leadership caste.
However, green central bank policy is not to be condemned primarily because it supposedly pursues ecological goals, but because a central bank comes into its own here. Central banks are by their very nature destructive. Even if they are not led by self-proclaimed ecologists and socialists, they favor the cousin, favoritism and the bigwig economy. The economists of the Austrian school have shown, among other things, that central banks always and everywhere weaken economic growth by undermining the propensity to save; that they are destabilizing the economy by fueling a debt economy; that they incite greed and avarice; and that they create blatant inequalities in income and wealth. Central banks cannot be reformed, they must be abolished.
This article is a translation of an article that has appeared in the German edition of the Epoch Times this month. It was reproduced by Mises Wire without a copyright notice.
Contact the author, Jörg Guido Hülsmann, at the Mises Institute, where, as a senior fellow he holds the 2018 Peterson-Luddy Chair. He was director of research for Mises Fellows in residence 1999-2004. He is author of Mises: The Last Knight of Liberalism and The Ethics of Money Production. He teaches in France, at Université d'Angers.
Budget deficits year in, year out despite high contributions—that is the reality in the state pension system and in the state health system. The state education system is similar: declining student performance and growing illiteracy despite sky-rocketing expenditure. No private entrepreneur could afford to let the costs get out of hand in such a way. Anyone who is in competition has to keep improving. Only those who have a legal monopoly and can make use of taxpayers’ money if necessary do not need it.
Now there is one partial socialism that stands out from the usual array of failures. Here we see gains instead of losses. Here we often find all the other signs of a successfully run company, from the private legal form to the pinstripe-filled boardroom. We are talking about central banking. The term “central bank” actually refers quite clearly to a centrally planned economy. But when people talk about the Fed, the ECB or other central banks today, hardly anyone thinks that they are talking about an offspring of the socialist spirit. On the contrary, central banks are typically viewed as particularly “capitalist.” After all, what would be more capitalist than money? And what would be more closely related to money than a bank?
Upon closer inspection, however, it appears that this connotation may not be entirely correct. In the unbridled market economy, private property and competition prevail. Central banks, on the other hand, are usually state institutions. Even those central banks that are private-law organizations (as in the United States, Japan, and Switzerland) are subject to special laws and their directors are appointed by national governments. In addition, central banks always and everywhere enjoy a legal monopoly. Their banknotes and their deposit money are largely withdrawn from free competition. The market participants are compelled to use the money of the central banks.
This money is one of a kind. Indeed, it can basically be produced in unlimited quantities. The production of money by the private commercial banks is limited by their equity capital and also by the cash deposits of their customers. But central banks do not need equity or cash deposits. It is they who create cash. They can generate cash out of nothing and practically for free. Certain legal limits are set for them, but in times of crisis, as in 2008–09 and in 2020–21, these limits can be relaxed quickly and dramatically. If necessary, they can also be abolished entirely.
Central banks therefore have potentially tremendous power. If only let loose, they can control all of the economy and society. There is almost no limit to the number of new loans they can issue. The can provide these loans to some and deny them to others. And by implication they can also control the use of all available resources. After all, labour usually moves where it is best paid. Raw materials and capital goods are typically sold to those who offer the highest prices. If you control the printing press, you can also let the real resources flow exactly where you think it is right. Whether this use of funds is also profitable plays a rather subordinate role for central banks (unlike commercial banks). You do not have to work hard and invest well to cover losses. One push of a button is enough.
Central banks are therefore made for do-gooders. He who runs a central bank does not need to do painstaking educational work in order to bring about any social change. The humanitarian with the printing press can finance all changes he wishes for at the push of a button. He can just pay other people to do what he wants. He does not need any savings or capital for this. He does not need a democratic majority either. As long as he has the printing press under control, he [need not] by and large give a damn about what other people think or wish.
This momentous fact has not escaped the attention of socialist theorists. The Saint-Simonians in France had already grasped it at the beginning of the nineteenth century. They understood that the economy of a country could be controlled particularly easily and safely with the help of the printing press. A few years later, the demand for the “centralization of credit in the hands of the state through a national bank with state capital and an exclusive monopoly” soon also held center stage in the 1848 Communist Manifesto by Marx and Engels.
Unsurprisingly, the enormous possibilities of creating money from nothing have been used again and again to finance state industrial policy and socialist experiments. In the 1970s, British historian Antony Sutton reported that some of New York’s Wall Street banks had financed the radical transformation of traditional European societies. They supported Lenin and Stalin as well as Adolf Hitler with billions of dollars. That would not have been possible without the refinancing from the American central bank.
In our day, too, the historical connection between the central banking system and political utopias is being brought back to life. This time it appears in the form of a “green” and egalitarian transformation of the economy and society. The directors of the ECB [European Central Bank] and the Fed have already officially committed to this.
The new humanitarians with the printing press are undoubtedly a great danger to humanity. They threaten everyone’s prosperity by channeling scarce resources into unprofitable (and therefore unsustainable) uses. But they also threaten the free social order as a whole, in that they are preparing to disempower the open competition of all social forces. They want to replace this competition with the rule of a nonelected leadership caste.
However, green central bank policy is not to be condemned primarily because it supposedly pursues ecological goals, but because a central bank comes into its own here. Central banks are by their very nature destructive. Even if they are not led by self-proclaimed ecologists and socialists, they favor the cousin, favoritism and the bigwig economy. The economists of the Austrian school have shown, among other things, that central banks always and everywhere weaken economic growth by undermining the propensity to save; that they are destabilizing the economy by fueling a debt economy; that they incite greed and avarice; and that they create blatant inequalities in income and wealth. Central banks cannot be reformed, they must be abolished.
This article is a translation of an article that has appeared in the German edition of the Epoch Times this month. It was reproduced by Mises Wire without a copyright notice.
Contact the author, Jörg Guido Hülsmann, at the Mises Institute, where, as a senior fellow he holds the 2018 Peterson-Luddy Chair. He was director of research for Mises Fellows in residence 1999-2004. He is author of Mises: The Last Knight of Liberalism and The Ethics of Money Production. He teaches in France, at Université d'Angers.
Friday, October 15, 2021
Fake news alert: covid said worse than Spanish flu
News media have been breathlessly reporting that the U.S. covid death toll now exceeds the U.S. Spanish flu toll of a century ago.
Technically, I suppose they are not guilty of perjury. Some 701,000 Americans are said to have died of covid versus 675,000 felled by Spanish flu.
Technically, I suppose they are not guilty of perjury. Some 701,000 Americans are said to have died of covid versus 675,000 felled by Spanish flu.
But they fail to mention that the U.S. population in 1918 and 1919 was less than one-third of the current U.S. population (104.5 million then versus 329.5 million now).
The Spanish flu death rate was 0.64%. The covid rate is 0.212%. The covid rate is noticeably lower.
The trench warfare of World War I encouraged the more virulent flu strains, which especially targeted young adults. Covid, on the other hand, can be expected to succeed best in mild strains, though any respiratory infection, whether covid 19, coronavirus or flu, will prove a menace to the aged and immuno-compromised.
Friday, October 8, 2021
Senate, press muzzled on CIA torture;
key photo nixed from published report
I found a Foreign Policy report on CIA torture, linked via RealClear Investigations, in my spam box. (That spam box is in my encrypted Protonmail account, but Google has the password.)
Foreign Policy story on CIA torture
https://foreignpolicy.com/2021/08/14/guantanamo-torture-afghanistan-pakistan-ahmed-rabbani-no-charge-trial-biden-obama-trump-reprieve/
As I worked on this post, my non-subscriber status was invoked, thus preventing further access to the incriminating deletion.
Basic data on Fatima Bhutto's report
Censor's hand shown:
Closeup of axed section:
Senate CIA torture report
https://www.intelligence.senate.gov/sites/default/files/publications/CRPT-113srpt288.pdf
I suppose we are left to infer that the excerpts came from classified sections of the Senate intelligence committee report. But, no statement to that effect is found with the Foreign Policy story. More importantly, the press is not bound by classification rules -- though the System is currently trying to criminalize the publishing of secrets, as we see from the CIA vendetta against Julian Assange.
In the CIA drone atrocities scandal, the whistleblower was given a stiff prison term. It remains to be seen which editors and reporters will be indicted for defying the CIA's self-styled supremacy over freedom of information in a democracy.
Foreign Policy story on CIA torture
https://foreignpolicy.com/2021/08/14/guantanamo-torture-afghanistan-pakistan-ahmed-rabbani-no-charge-trial-biden-obama-trump-reprieve/
As I worked on this post, my non-subscriber status was invoked, thus preventing further access to the incriminating deletion.
Basic data on Fatima Bhutto's report
Nothing but Pitch Black DarknessAll photos in the article were reproduced while I was reading the article today -- except for one containing excerpts from a U.S. Senate report on CIA torture. As the dateline shows, this censorship -- that appears to benefit the CIA -- occurred during Joe Biden's term.
Ahmed Rabbani’s journey through the U.S. dark
prison system to Guantánamo
By Fatima Bhutto
AUGUST 14, 2021, 3:20 AM
Censor's hand shown:
Closeup of axed section:
The green graphic indicates that the photo has been removed -- possibly by the server or possibly by the magazine itself.
Senate CIA torture report
https://www.intelligence.senate.gov/sites/default/files/publications/CRPT-113srpt288.pdf
I suppose we are left to infer that the excerpts came from classified sections of the Senate intelligence committee report. But, no statement to that effect is found with the Foreign Policy story. More importantly, the press is not bound by classification rules -- though the System is currently trying to criminalize the publishing of secrets, as we see from the CIA vendetta against Julian Assange.
In the CIA drone atrocities scandal, the whistleblower was given a stiff prison term. It remains to be seen which editors and reporters will be indicted for defying the CIA's self-styled supremacy over freedom of information in a democracy.
Tuesday, October 5, 2021
Cloth masks don't filter viruses by much
If someone is sneezing or coughing, even a cloth mask will sharply curtail the ejection of virus-laden droplets into the air. But, otherwise, cloth masks are virtually worthless in deterring contagion, with mask pores typically being more than 100 times the size of a virus particle.
Cloth masks are unlikely to give much protection from airborne virus particles that are not clinging to sneezed or coughed moisture droplets, especially because masks used by the public do not meet basic filtration standards set for medical masks. They tend to be much too permeable, permitting virus particles relatively easy access to the wearer's face.
Even in some medical masks, pore sizes are much too big to act as a real deterrent to virus particles, though they suffice to greatly inhibit the much larger bacterium organisms.
If a tight, appropriate mask is being worn when a nearby person coughs or sneezes, the chance of inhaling the droplet -- which is much larger than an individual virus particle -- is sharply reduced. But, normally these ejecta fall to the ground fairly soon.
Technical discussion of permeability
https://textiles.ncsu.edu/tatm/wp-content/uploads/sites/4/2017/11/Ogulata_Full_199-06.pdf
According to one study of six types of medical mask, the average of the six mean mask pores was 29.67 microns. But virus particle sizes are substantially smaller, with the longest known rod-like one put at 1,000 nanometers. Globular virus particles generally have diameters that do not exceed 500 microns. A CDC report finds that coronavirus particles typically have diameters of 80 to 100 nanometers.
CDC report
https://wwwnc.cdc.gov/eid/article/27/4/20-4337_article
First, we check the longest virus length against the smallest pore width and find that
If we take the mean of each representative hole width for each of the six masks, we get about 30x10-6 meters. That width versus the longest virus particle yields:
If we reduce the virus length to 100 nanometers -- which is a typical coronavirus length -- we find that the particle is 0.33% the width of a typical fabric hole. Since that figure is substantially lower than 1%, we conclude that cloth masks provide very low levels of protection against virus particles suspended in air.
We should focus on the fact that the above figures are for medical masks. The porosity of unregulated cloth masks can be expected to be much higher.
And considering these virus-size to pore-size ratios, there is little benefit to be seen in the erstwhile federal suggestion that citizens wear two masks at a time.
A problem with N95 medical masks -- those that "filter out 95% of airborne particles" -- is that they don't work well unless fitted tightly against the face and head. That problem is far more apparent on cloth masks sold to the public.
A check of the CDC shows that N95 masks are often used for industrial purposes. Thus, the claim that a mask filters out 95% of airborne particulates may not actually mean virus particles. What does the phrase "95% of particulates" mean? Does it mean 95% of common types of particulates or most particulates of any size?
A CDC fact sheet for the public does not disclose the precise meaning of that phrase.
Types of mask
https://www.cdc.gov/coronavirus/2019-ncov/prevent-getting-sick/types-of-masks.html
The fact sheet however does specify approved types of cloth masks. It recommends
It is noteworthy that the very people most likely to be imperiled by covid are most likely to have pre-existing breathing impediments, making the use of purportedly effective masks either impossible or at least inadvisable.
Cloth masks are unlikely to give much protection from airborne virus particles that are not clinging to sneezed or coughed moisture droplets, especially because masks used by the public do not meet basic filtration standards set for medical masks. They tend to be much too permeable, permitting virus particles relatively easy access to the wearer's face.
Even in some medical masks, pore sizes are much too big to act as a real deterrent to virus particles, though they suffice to greatly inhibit the much larger bacterium organisms.
If a tight, appropriate mask is being worn when a nearby person coughs or sneezes, the chance of inhaling the droplet -- which is much larger than an individual virus particle -- is sharply reduced. But, normally these ejecta fall to the ground fairly soon.
Technical discussion of permeability
https://textiles.ncsu.edu/tatm/wp-content/uploads/sites/4/2017/11/Ogulata_Full_199-06.pdf
According to one study of six types of medical mask, the average of the six mean mask pores was 29.67 microns. But virus particle sizes are substantially smaller, with the longest known rod-like one put at 1,000 nanometers. Globular virus particles generally have diameters that do not exceed 500 microns. A CDC report finds that coronavirus particles typically have diameters of 80 to 100 nanometers.
CDC report
https://wwwnc.cdc.gov/eid/article/27/4/20-4337_article
First, we check the longest virus length against the smallest pore width and find that
103x10-9
---------
17x10-6
= 1/17.
That is, the longest virus particle is about 6% of the width of the smallest average hole size for that mask type.If we take the mean of each representative hole width for each of the six masks, we get about 30x10-6 meters. That width versus the longest virus particle yields:
3x10-5
---------
10-6
= 3.34%
That is, the longest particle is no more than 3.34% of the width of a typical pore on one of the tested masks.If we reduce the virus length to 100 nanometers -- which is a typical coronavirus length -- we find that the particle is 0.33% the width of a typical fabric hole. Since that figure is substantially lower than 1%, we conclude that cloth masks provide very low levels of protection against virus particles suspended in air.
We should focus on the fact that the above figures are for medical masks. The porosity of unregulated cloth masks can be expected to be much higher.
And considering these virus-size to pore-size ratios, there is little benefit to be seen in the erstwhile federal suggestion that citizens wear two masks at a time.
A problem with N95 medical masks -- those that "filter out 95% of airborne particles" -- is that they don't work well unless fitted tightly against the face and head. That problem is far more apparent on cloth masks sold to the public.
A check of the CDC shows that N95 masks are often used for industrial purposes. Thus, the claim that a mask filters out 95% of airborne particulates may not actually mean virus particles. What does the phrase "95% of particulates" mean? Does it mean 95% of common types of particulates or most particulates of any size?
A CDC fact sheet for the public does not disclose the precise meaning of that phrase.
Types of mask
https://www.cdc.gov/coronavirus/2019-ncov/prevent-getting-sick/types-of-masks.html
The fact sheet however does specify approved types of cloth masks. It recommends
A proper fit over your nose and mouth to prevent leaks; multiple layers of tightly woven, breathable fabric; a nose wire; and fabric that blocks light when held up to bright light source.Interestingly, the CDC advisories do not say what percentage of airborne virus particles are likely to be screened for either approved cloth masks or N95 medical masks (sometimes called respirators). But pre-2020 information indicates that such masks block 95% of moisture droplets, including virus-laden ones ejected via a cough or sneeze. Sneezing is not typically a symptom of covid.
It is noteworthy that the very people most likely to be imperiled by covid are most likely to have pre-existing breathing impediments, making the use of purportedly effective masks either impossible or at least inadvisable.
Monday, October 4, 2021
Afraid of Covid? For most, death toll is low
But vaccination might still be wise for seniors
Your chance of dying of Covid is low. You are far more likely to die of anything but Covid, even if you are of advanced age, according to data collected by the Heritage Foundation.
Heritage schematic
https://datavisualizations.heritage.org/public-health/covid-19-deaths-by-age/
The foundation reports:
It must be noted that those Covid figures were not gathered in the United States, where hospital medical care is high tech and quite efficient. There have been few instances where U.S. hospitals were so overwhelmed that they had to cease care for the most gravely ill patients.
Thus, it as at least plausible that for people 65 and older the risk of Covid death is somewhat higher than it is for flu or pneumonia. Those in their mid-70's or older may face a substantially higher risk: 11.6%.
Since immune system weakening generally progresses with age, investigators are sure that younger immuno-compromised persons run risks comparable to those run by seniors.
So it makes sense for those in the affected age range to voluntarily seek vaccination. On the other hand the only reason for younger people to be vaccinated would be to reduce the chance of spreading the virus to seniors and others with immune problems. But there is no law or legal principle that requires a citizen to put himself or herself at risk for the benefit of others, excepting in military situations.
True, according to the federal Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, the allergic reaction rate to the two-dose vaccine is miniscule: 0.00011%. Yet, should it still not be a citizen's right to decide whether to take this risk? After all, he or she may have some reason to suspect that the adverse reaction rate is higher than reported. Even if wrong about that, doesn't he or she have the right to be wrong?
According to a CDC report:
https://www.cdc.gov/mmwr/volumes/70/wr/mm7002e1.htm
The CDC found that vaccination drastically reduced the risk of contracting Covid, according to a recent report. Vaccination also curbed the Delta Variant, researchers said.
Vaccination report
https://www.contagionlive.com/view/cdc-vaccinated-people-reduced-risk-of-mortality-by-more-10-times
Unvaccinated
Of 569,142 affirmed Covid cases, 6192 ended in death, for a mortality rate of 1%.
Of 34,972 Covid hospitalizations, 6192 ended in death. That is, a person treated for Covid in a hospital faced a 17.7% death toll.
Vaccinated
Of 46,312 affirmed cases, 616 ended in death, for a mortality rate of 1.3%. But the chance of catching the disease was only 8% of the number of unvaccinated who came down with Covid.
Of the 2,976 hospitalized for Covid, the death rate was 20.6%. Though that figure is slightly higher than the comparable figure for the unvaccinated, there are a number of variables that make it difficult to say that the difference is statistically significant.
A word on death tolls: The rate may be the number of deaths divided by population (and multiplied by 100 to obtain a percentage). The rate may be the number of substantiated cases divided by number of deaths. The rate may be number of hospitalizations divided by number of deaths.
According to recent figures, the Covid death rate is well below 1% at about 0.212% for a 22-month period (701,000 U.S. deaths divided by a U.S. population of 329.5 million). That accords with the finding that about 1% of people who catch Covid die from it. One would then suppose that the death rate for a relatively large population would be significantly lower that that.
When we reflect on the generally low death toll from Covid, we are left perplexed as to why federal health officials advocate mass wearing of cloth masks, which are unlikely to be much of a screen against the ultra-tiny virus particles and which are easily contaminated by the wearer's hands, which are far more likely to encounter Covid particles, especially on door handles.
Heritage schematic
https://datavisualizations.heritage.org/public-health/covid-19-deaths-by-age/
The foundation reports:
CDC data also show that Americans, regardless of age group, are far more likely to die of something other than COVID-19. Even among those in the most heavily impacted age group (85 and older), only 13.3 percent of all deaths since February 2020 were due to COVID-19.In the United States, the death rate from pneumonia and flu was slightly lower than 1 in 1,000 for people aged 65 and above, according to official data for 2018. Precise and reliable U.S. Covid figures are strangely difficult to pinpoint on the internet. Nevertheless a 2020 statistical study published by Nature puts the Covid death rates at near zero for people under 50, about 5 per 1,000 people who are in their 50's and early 60's (a majority being men), and 116 per 1,000 for people who are in their mid-70's or older.
It must be noted that those Covid figures were not gathered in the United States, where hospital medical care is high tech and quite efficient. There have been few instances where U.S. hospitals were so overwhelmed that they had to cease care for the most gravely ill patients.
Thus, it as at least plausible that for people 65 and older the risk of Covid death is somewhat higher than it is for flu or pneumonia. Those in their mid-70's or older may face a substantially higher risk: 11.6%.
Since immune system weakening generally progresses with age, investigators are sure that younger immuno-compromised persons run risks comparable to those run by seniors.
So it makes sense for those in the affected age range to voluntarily seek vaccination. On the other hand the only reason for younger people to be vaccinated would be to reduce the chance of spreading the virus to seniors and others with immune problems. But there is no law or legal principle that requires a citizen to put himself or herself at risk for the benefit of others, excepting in military situations.
True, according to the federal Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, the allergic reaction rate to the two-dose vaccine is miniscule: 0.00011%. Yet, should it still not be a citizen's right to decide whether to take this risk? After all, he or she may have some reason to suspect that the adverse reaction rate is higher than reported. Even if wrong about that, doesn't he or she have the right to be wrong?
According to a CDC report:
During December 14–23, 2020, monitoring by the Vaccine Adverse Event Reporting System detected 21 cases of anaphylaxis after administration of a reported 1,893,360 first doses of the Pfizer-BioNTech COVID-19 vaccine (11.1 cases per million doses); 71% of these occurred within 15 minutes of vaccination.CDC report
https://www.cdc.gov/mmwr/volumes/70/wr/mm7002e1.htm
The CDC found that vaccination drastically reduced the risk of contracting Covid, according to a recent report. Vaccination also curbed the Delta Variant, researchers said.
Vaccination report
https://www.contagionlive.com/view/cdc-vaccinated-people-reduced-risk-of-mortality-by-more-10-times
During April 4–July 17, a total of 569,142 (92%) COVID-19 cases, 34,972 (92%) hospitalizations, and 6,132 (91%) COVID-19–associated deaths were reported among persons not fully vaccinated, and 46,312 (8%) cases, 2,976 (8%) hospitalizations, and 616 (9%) deaths were reported among fully vaccinated persons in the 13 jurisdictions.Vaccinated persons who contracted Covid anyway ran about the same risks as those who had not been vaccinated, according to the CDC figures.
Unvaccinated
Of 569,142 affirmed Covid cases, 6192 ended in death, for a mortality rate of 1%.
Of 34,972 Covid hospitalizations, 6192 ended in death. That is, a person treated for Covid in a hospital faced a 17.7% death toll.
Vaccinated
Of 46,312 affirmed cases, 616 ended in death, for a mortality rate of 1.3%. But the chance of catching the disease was only 8% of the number of unvaccinated who came down with Covid.
Of the 2,976 hospitalized for Covid, the death rate was 20.6%. Though that figure is slightly higher than the comparable figure for the unvaccinated, there are a number of variables that make it difficult to say that the difference is statistically significant.
A word on death tolls: The rate may be the number of deaths divided by population (and multiplied by 100 to obtain a percentage). The rate may be the number of substantiated cases divided by number of deaths. The rate may be number of hospitalizations divided by number of deaths.
According to recent figures, the Covid death rate is well below 1% at about 0.212% for a 22-month period (701,000 U.S. deaths divided by a U.S. population of 329.5 million). That accords with the finding that about 1% of people who catch Covid die from it. One would then suppose that the death rate for a relatively large population would be significantly lower that that.
When we reflect on the generally low death toll from Covid, we are left perplexed as to why federal health officials advocate mass wearing of cloth masks, which are unlikely to be much of a screen against the ultra-tiny virus particles and which are easily contaminated by the wearer's hands, which are far more likely to encounter Covid particles, especially on door handles.
Thursday, September 16, 2021
End the special relationship:
it's being used against liberty
The peoples of the United States and the United Kingdom must take a stance against the abusive diplomatic "special relationship" between the two countries.
It is being used as part of a major assault by America's Deep State and Britain's Establishment against the nemesis of those hoary conspiracies: Wikileaks and its founder, Julian Assange.
I will do my part. I am an American who was born American but who also was given British citizenship. That is, I had dual nationality.
No longer. I want it known that I repudiate any claim I might have on British citizenship. I don't care to retain that citizenship, despite the potential for technical benefits, such as a right to stay longer in the UK than a tourist.
To repeat:
I repudiate any claim on British citizenship. I adhere solely to my U.S. citizenship, God helping.
I wish that act to serve as a symbol of the necessity of ending the "special relationship," which has become a tool in the hands of security bureaucracies for the suppression of basic freedoms.
Obviously, this choice does not imply that my affection for the British people has diminished.
The U.S. Justice Department knows how to obtain convictions. One tactic is to force plea bargains. "If you don't agree to say something that incriminates you or someone else in court, we'll throw the book at you. If you dare to insist on your right to trial, we'll seek a heavy sentence."
And the book they can throw is hefty. It's almost impossible for the ordinary American to avoid committing some federal felony or other. The Deep State just has too much power. Should you decide to fight, U.S. prosecutors have taxpayer millions at their command. Most people don't have such resources. In addition, it is almost routine to impound funds you could use for your defense and, if you have a particularly effective defense counsel, to have him or her barred from your case.
I recall a short while ago a friend's brother being charged with a federal felony. His lawyer told him flatly. "This is the feds. You can't fight them. You have to take a plea."
No chance of a fair trial. The pressure is so overwhelming that quite a few innocent people end up admitting to guilt, experts say.
See Conviction Machine by defense lawyers Sidney Powell and Harvey Silvergate (Encounter Books 2020); Licensed to Lie by Sidney Powell (self-published 2014); and Three Felonies a Day: How the Feds Target the Innocent by Harvey Silvergate with a Foreword by Alan Dershowitz (Encounter Books 2011).
It is being used as part of a major assault by America's Deep State and Britain's Establishment against the nemesis of those hoary conspiracies: Wikileaks and its founder, Julian Assange.
I will do my part. I am an American who was born American but who also was given British citizenship. That is, I had dual nationality.
No longer. I want it known that I repudiate any claim I might have on British citizenship. I don't care to retain that citizenship, despite the potential for technical benefits, such as a right to stay longer in the UK than a tourist.
To repeat:
I repudiate any claim on British citizenship. I adhere solely to my U.S. citizenship, God helping.
I wish that act to serve as a symbol of the necessity of ending the "special relationship," which has become a tool in the hands of security bureaucracies for the suppression of basic freedoms.
Obviously, this choice does not imply that my affection for the British people has diminished.
The U.S. Justice Department knows how to obtain convictions. One tactic is to force plea bargains. "If you don't agree to say something that incriminates you or someone else in court, we'll throw the book at you. If you dare to insist on your right to trial, we'll seek a heavy sentence."
And the book they can throw is hefty. It's almost impossible for the ordinary American to avoid committing some federal felony or other. The Deep State just has too much power. Should you decide to fight, U.S. prosecutors have taxpayer millions at their command. Most people don't have such resources. In addition, it is almost routine to impound funds you could use for your defense and, if you have a particularly effective defense counsel, to have him or her barred from your case.
I recall a short while ago a friend's brother being charged with a federal felony. His lawyer told him flatly. "This is the feds. You can't fight them. You have to take a plea."
No chance of a fair trial. The pressure is so overwhelming that quite a few innocent people end up admitting to guilt, experts say.
See Conviction Machine by defense lawyers Sidney Powell and Harvey Silvergate (Encounter Books 2020); Licensed to Lie by Sidney Powell (self-published 2014); and Three Felonies a Day: How the Feds Target the Innocent by Harvey Silvergate with a Foreword by Alan Dershowitz (Encounter Books 2011).
Wednesday, March 17, 2021
10 corkers from Ireland
From The Irish Post
10.
The Priest
An Irish priest is driving along a country road when a policeman pulls him over. He immediately smells alcohol on the priest's breath and notices an empty wine bottle in the car.
He says: "Have you been drinking?"
"Just water," says the priest.
The cop replies: "Then why do I smell wine?"
The priest looks at the bottle and says: "Good Lord! He's done it again!"
9.
The Quickest Way To Cork
Billy stops Paddy in Dublin and asks for the quickest way to Cork.
Paddy says: "Are you on foot or in the car?"
Billy replies: "In the car."
"Well that's the quickest way," says Paddy.
8.
One Last Shot
Paudie goes into a bar and orders seven shots of tequila and one Guinness.
The barman lines up shots and goes to get the Guinness.
When he comes back with the pint, all seven shots are gone.
The barman says: "Wow! You sure drank those fast."
Paudie explains: "You would drink fast too if you had what I have."
The barman asks: "What do you have?"
The guy reaches into his pocket and says: "Fifty cents!"
7.
The Car Park
An Irishman is struggling to find a parking space.
"Lord," he prayed. "I can't stand this. If you open a space up for me, I swear I'll give up the Guinness and go to mass every Sunday."
Suddenly, the clouds part and the sun shines on an empty parking spot. Without hesitation, the Irishman says: "Never mind, I found one!"
6.
Taking Out An Advert
"Is that the Ballycashel Echo?" asks Mick.
"How much would it be to put an ad in your paper?"
"Five pounds an inch," a woman replies. "Why? What are you selling?"
"A ten-foot ladder," said Mick before slamming the phone down.
5.
Three Brothers
An Irishman goes into a bar in America and orders three whiskeys. The barman asks: "Would it be better for if I put all three shots in one glass?"
The Irishman replies: "No! I have two other brothers back at home, so every time I come into a pub, I order a shot for them both."
The following week, the Irishman orders just two whiskeys.
The barman asks: "Did something happen one of your brothers?" "Oh no," replies the Irishman. "I just decided to quit drinking!"
4.
Man's Best Friend
Gerry Connors walked his dog through the village every day.
One day Mr Connors is on his walk without the dog.
His pal Billy sees him and asks: "Where is your dog?" Mr Murphy answers: "I had to have him put down." "Was he mad," asks Billy.
"He wasn't too pleased," Mr Murphy replies.
3.
Visiting The Doctor
Dr O'Mahony tells his patient: "I have bad news and worse news, John."
"Oh dear," John replies. "What's the bad news?" asks the patient.
The doctor replies: "You only have 24 hours to live."
"That's terrible," says the patient. "How can the news possibly be worse?"
Dr O'Mahony replies: "I've been trying to contact you since yesterday."
2.
Digging A Hole
Two Irishmen were working in the public works department. One would dig a hole and the other would follow behind him and fill the hole in.
After a while, one amazed onlooker said: "Why do you dig a hole, only to have your partner follow behind and fill it up again?"
The hole digger wiped his brow and sighed, "Well, I suppose it probably looks odd because we're normally a three-person team. But today the lad who plants the trees called in sick."
1.
The Grieving Widow
A sobbing Ms Murphy approaches Fr O'Grady after mass.
He says: "So what's bothering you?"
She replies: "Oh, Father, I've terrible news. My husband passed away last night."
The priest says: "Oh, Mary, that's terrible. Did he have any last requests?"
"Certainly father," she replied. "He said: "Please Mary, put down that damn gun."
Tuesday, March 16, 2021
Mirror of a page on an upstate New York tragedy
Wednesday, October 10, 2018
End of the road
in Schoharie
Post substantially expanded on Oct. 28, 2018 and Jan. 30, 2019.
Relevant news items are linked at bottom of page.
Post Gazette
Albany Times Union
The fated limousine came to rest in a creek bed just beyond the crosses after ricocheting off an SUV parked at approximately where the pavement appears.
The ghastly remains of the limousine after being dragged from the creek bed.
Google Earth overview of death trap
https://earth.app.goo.gl/roiAK9
Who they were
https://www.timesunion.com/news/article/Schoharie-Limo-Crash-Victims-What-We-Know-13290063.php
From about the third house up Route 30 (pointing upward on screen), a driver can see the Route 30A roadway partly obscured by trees. Once the T-intersection roadway comes into full view of a downhill driver, stopping distance becomes problematic.
https://earth.google.com/web/@42.70141322,-74.29924625,213.69707175a,791.38466732d,35y,0h,0t,0r
It has been reported that the group of young friends and relatives was doing a tour of wineries and breweries, and was headed for Ommegang, a popular Cooperstown brewery 42 miles west of the crash site after visiting a winery. An autopsy will show whether the driver had imbibed while on the job.
On the other hand, mechanical problems pose another possibility. Erin R. McGowan, 34, texted a friend minutes before her death: “The motor is making everyone deaf," adding, “When we get to brewery we will all b deaf.” And in a report Oct. 12, The New York Times said that at 1:40 p.m., 15 minutes before the crash, Allison King, 31, texted her fiance. “She said the brakes were burning and they were coasting,” the Times quoted Allison's mother as saying.
This might indicate she was smelling the brake pads burning as the calipers failed to let go, or it could point to a failing transmission. If the car reached the bottom of the hill without brakes, control would have been a major problem. Yet if Allison's text was sent 15 minutes before her death, the limo would have not yet reached the downgrade and so one is left with the question as to why the driver, Scott Lisinicchia, 53, didn't pull over and call for a replacement vehicle.
Once the limo arrived at the intersection at what police estimated as 50 mph, there would have been no chance of making a turn, right or left, though it appears the driver tried to turn because he entered the parking lot rather than hurtling straight into the woods.
As I gazed at the gashed tree where the fun-loving young friends met their end, thoughts of a long-ago war where so many young people died drifted across my mind.
I like to think I am no longer affected by those gruesome images of yore. But I suppose I am still bothered.
At 2.19 p.m. Oct. 21, a Sunday, I was 9.1 miles from the crash site on the Thruway when my GPS screen froze. It stayed frozen until I left the accident site, righting itself after it turned on as I left. When I arrived at the site however I was unable to turn it off. That has never happened before -- although my Garmin GPS is sometimes very cranky.
Driving south from Amsterdam, the youthful party crowd's limo headed down Route 30, a typical New York State country road that seems to go from one barn to the next, making it a bit winding. Pretty farms and fields whizzed past. Signs warned to watch out for cattle. An old sign advertising "Computer Repairs" hung on one farm gate. High tension power lines graced the sky at one point, a church steeple at another. One rustic town they passed through hosts a fire station, which doubtless sent people and equipment to the accident site.
Some curves are quite tight, but no problem for an experienced driver. But if the driver was having brake trouble, he may have thought that the inclines were not all that bad, as Route 30 goes downhill rather slowly before the last 1.2-mile sharp and winding drop. Authorities are still studying brake issues, but if the car had the original brakes plus all the weight from the riders and from the stretch add-on, it is quite conceivable that they could not have held on the last downgrade.
According to TheDrive web site,
Hometowns of deceased
Limousine Passengers:
Axel J. Steenburg, 29, Amsterdam, NY
Richard M. Steenburg, 34, Johnstown, NY
Amy L. Steenburg, 29, Amsterdam, NY
Allison King, 31, Ballston Spa, NY
Mary E. Dyson, 33, Watertown, NY
Robert J. Dyson, 34, Watertown, NY
Abigail M. Jackson, 34, Amsterdam, NY
Matthew W. Coons, 27, Johnstown, NY
Savannah D. Bursese, 24, Johnstown, NY
Patrick K. Cushing, 31, Troy, NY
Amanda D. Halse, 26, Troy, NY
Erin R. McGowan, 34, Amsterdam, NY
Shane T. McGowan, 30, Amsterdam, NY
Amanda Rivenburg, 29, Colonie, NY
Adam G. Jackson, 34, Amsterdam, NY
Rachael K. Cavosie, 30, Waterford, NY
Michael C. Ukaj, 34, Johnstown, NY
Limousine Driver:
Scott T. Lisinicchia, 53, Lake George, NY
Pedestrians:
Brian Hough, 46, Moravia, NY
James Schnurr, 70, Kerhonkson, NY
Post script: I haven't been able to shake the feeling I get when looking upon photos of the victims that I have known a number of them personally -- even though I haven't. I suppose that might stem from my age. Certain physical and personality types tend to recur. So one thinks, "Say I recognize him or her" because of the similarity in appearance to someone one knew not so long ago. The other factor in this connection is also, I would say, a product of my age: the realization that we are all brothers and sisters, sons and daughters...
Memorial scenes
https://dailygazette.com/article/2018/10/14/schoharie-limo-tragedy-scenes-from-friday-and-saturday
More Times Union photos
https://www.timesunion.com/news/article/Oct-28-benefit-concert-set-for-families-of-limo-13310958.php#photo-16326566
Prof, father-in-law mown down
as three relatives are spared
https://www.syracuse.com/news/index.ssf/2018/10/oswego_prof_killed_in_upstate_ny_limo_crash_was_enroute_to_wedding_when_tragedy.html
End of the road? On Hegel and Death
http://zion78.blogspot.com/2018/10/end-of-road.html
2 brothers were like peanut butter and jelly
https://www.nbcnews.com/news/us-news/brothers-killed-fatal-limo-crash-were-peanut-butter-jelly-n925036
They aren't coming home: 4 daughters mourned
https://www.nytimes.com/2018/10/17/nyregion/schoharie-limo-crash-victims-sisters.html
From there, the facts settled in more slowly: They were now grandparents to three orphans, a 16-month-old, a 2-year-old and a 4-year-old.
'God made a mistake,' says 10-year-old daughter
https://www.wlwt.com/article/god-made-a-mistake-family-remembers-brothers-lost-in-horrific-limo-crash/24215439
Road leaves drivers few options
https://dailygazette.com/article/2018/10/20/letters-to-the-editor
'They were the perfect couple'
https://cnycentral.com/news/local/fundraiser-to-benefit-moravia-woman-who-lost-husband-father-in-horrific-limo-crash
Limo owners sued in Rivenberg death
https://media.news10.com/nxs-wtentv-media-us-east-1/document_dev/2018/11/19/Filed%20S_AMP_C_1542648085824_62612398_ver1.0.pdf
Google Earth overview of death trap
https://earth.app.goo.gl/roiAK9
Who they were
https://www.timesunion.com/news/article/Schoharie-Limo-Crash-Victims-What-We-Know-13290063.php
Just yards from where I was standing, the lives of 20 people came to a sudden end.
Around 2 p.m. Saturday a stretch limousine packed with party-goers caromed off a parked SUV and flew into a creek bed, where it smashed into a huge tree trunk that hung sideways over the stream. Two pedestrians, a professor and his father-in-law, were killed when their SUV lurched into them as their wives and the professor's 9-year-old son stood by.
No skid marks were visible at the intersection of Routes 30 and 30A in Schoharie, N.Y.
The limo had come down a long, winding grade along Route 30 and crossed Route 30A into the parking lot of the Apple Barrel Country Store and Cafe, where it ricocheted off the SUV and landed in the stream bed with a loud explosion. Patrons rushed from the restaurant, helpless as shrieks resounded from the dying.
Today a few passers-by milled about a roadside shrine. Nearby, one could see the narrow ruts made when the limo, lacking front wheels, was pulled from the woodland and put on a truck bed. As one looks at the 20 carved crosses, not too far beyond is the tree -- with large pieces of bark missing -- that brought the day's excursion to a grisly end.
The Apple Barrel restaurant proprietors had had enough of the media frenzy of previous days. Large signs proclaimed, "No media" and "Out of respect for the families, no more media." As a former reporter, I understand that frustration. Yet, it seemed to me that the press was not disrespecting anyone. They were just doing their jobs.
A large electronic road sign on Route 30A South, just past Interstate 88, warned drivers to slow down. Apparently it had been placed there because of all the activity just ahead, though today there wasn't much going on.
I drove that last downhill route taken by the limousine.
Evidently the bottom of that hill was known as a bad intersection because on occasion trucks have lost control and ended up unable to make the turn quickly enough at the intersection, requiring them to roll into the parking lot, which is at a slight angle to the left from where Route 30 meets Route 30A. Yet there were at least two large signs warning trucks of a sharp grade, signs that the limo driver should have seen to caution him. After all, he had 17 passengers aboard. I would think a careful driver would have taken note of those gradient warnings.
The intersection however is obscured, though not invisible when approaching Route 30A. I was expecting the upcoming "T," so I knew to be on the lookout. When I saw the road ahead as I came around a bend, I had plenty of time to stop. I was doing about 40. Had a driver been doing 60, I would estimate he would have had time to stop -- if he noticed the partly obscured Route 30A ahead. But, one can imagine that a car full of young party-goers was loud and jovial, meaning the driver might have been distracted for a moment or two.
Google Earth overview of stopping problem
Around 2 p.m. Saturday a stretch limousine packed with party-goers caromed off a parked SUV and flew into a creek bed, where it smashed into a huge tree trunk that hung sideways over the stream. Two pedestrians, a professor and his father-in-law, were killed when their SUV lurched into them as their wives and the professor's 9-year-old son stood by.
No skid marks were visible at the intersection of Routes 30 and 30A in Schoharie, N.Y.
The limo had come down a long, winding grade along Route 30 and crossed Route 30A into the parking lot of the Apple Barrel Country Store and Cafe, where it ricocheted off the SUV and landed in the stream bed with a loud explosion. Patrons rushed from the restaurant, helpless as shrieks resounded from the dying.
Today a few passers-by milled about a roadside shrine. Nearby, one could see the narrow ruts made when the limo, lacking front wheels, was pulled from the woodland and put on a truck bed. As one looks at the 20 carved crosses, not too far beyond is the tree -- with large pieces of bark missing -- that brought the day's excursion to a grisly end.
The Apple Barrel restaurant proprietors had had enough of the media frenzy of previous days. Large signs proclaimed, "No media" and "Out of respect for the families, no more media." As a former reporter, I understand that frustration. Yet, it seemed to me that the press was not disrespecting anyone. They were just doing their jobs.
A large electronic road sign on Route 30A South, just past Interstate 88, warned drivers to slow down. Apparently it had been placed there because of all the activity just ahead, though today there wasn't much going on.
I drove that last downhill route taken by the limousine.
Evidently the bottom of that hill was known as a bad intersection because on occasion trucks have lost control and ended up unable to make the turn quickly enough at the intersection, requiring them to roll into the parking lot, which is at a slight angle to the left from where Route 30 meets Route 30A. Yet there were at least two large signs warning trucks of a sharp grade, signs that the limo driver should have seen to caution him. After all, he had 17 passengers aboard. I would think a careful driver would have taken note of those gradient warnings.
The intersection however is obscured, though not invisible when approaching Route 30A. I was expecting the upcoming "T," so I knew to be on the lookout. When I saw the road ahead as I came around a bend, I had plenty of time to stop. I was doing about 40. Had a driver been doing 60, I would estimate he would have had time to stop -- if he noticed the partly obscured Route 30A ahead. But, one can imagine that a car full of young party-goers was loud and jovial, meaning the driver might have been distracted for a moment or two.
Google Earth overview of stopping problem
From about the third house up Route 30 (pointing upward on screen), a driver can see the Route 30A roadway partly obscured by trees. Once the T-intersection roadway comes into full view of a downhill driver, stopping distance becomes problematic.
https://earth.google.com/web/@42.70141322,-74.29924625,213.69707175a,791.38466732d,35y,0h,0t,0r
It has been reported that the group of young friends and relatives was doing a tour of wineries and breweries, and was headed for Ommegang, a popular Cooperstown brewery 42 miles west of the crash site after visiting a winery. An autopsy will show whether the driver had imbibed while on the job.
On the other hand, mechanical problems pose another possibility. Erin R. McGowan, 34, texted a friend minutes before her death: “The motor is making everyone deaf," adding, “When we get to brewery we will all b deaf.” And in a report Oct. 12, The New York Times said that at 1:40 p.m., 15 minutes before the crash, Allison King, 31, texted her fiance. “She said the brakes were burning and they were coasting,” the Times quoted Allison's mother as saying.
This might indicate she was smelling the brake pads burning as the calipers failed to let go, or it could point to a failing transmission. If the car reached the bottom of the hill without brakes, control would have been a major problem. Yet if Allison's text was sent 15 minutes before her death, the limo would have not yet reached the downgrade and so one is left with the question as to why the driver, Scott Lisinicchia, 53, didn't pull over and call for a replacement vehicle.
Once the limo arrived at the intersection at what police estimated as 50 mph, there would have been no chance of making a turn, right or left, though it appears the driver tried to turn because he entered the parking lot rather than hurtling straight into the woods.
As I gazed at the gashed tree where the fun-loving young friends met their end, thoughts of a long-ago war where so many young people died drifted across my mind.
I like to think I am no longer affected by those gruesome images of yore. But I suppose I am still bothered.
Eerie incident on second drive
At 2.19 p.m. Oct. 21, a Sunday, I was 9.1 miles from the crash site on the Thruway when my GPS screen froze. It stayed frozen until I left the accident site, righting itself after it turned on as I left. When I arrived at the site however I was unable to turn it off. That has never happened before -- although my Garmin GPS is sometimes very cranky.
Driving south from Amsterdam, the youthful party crowd's limo headed down Route 30, a typical New York State country road that seems to go from one barn to the next, making it a bit winding. Pretty farms and fields whizzed past. Signs warned to watch out for cattle. An old sign advertising "Computer Repairs" hung on one farm gate. High tension power lines graced the sky at one point, a church steeple at another. One rustic town they passed through hosts a fire station, which doubtless sent people and equipment to the accident site.
Some curves are quite tight, but no problem for an experienced driver. But if the driver was having brake trouble, he may have thought that the inclines were not all that bad, as Route 30 goes downhill rather slowly before the last 1.2-mile sharp and winding drop. Authorities are still studying brake issues, but if the car had the original brakes plus all the weight from the riders and from the stretch add-on, it is quite conceivable that they could not have held on the last downgrade.
According to TheDrive web site,
The 2001 Excursion stretch probably weighed around 10,000 pounds, or around 3,000 than a stock model from that year. Add around 2,700 pounds in passenger weight, and you end up with a mass that would chew through stock brakes—especially on a mile long downhill stretch.
http://www.thedrive.com/news/24302/the-stretch-limos-fatal-flaw
"Any livery vehicle that old, even well maintained, should not still be in service, says [one expert]. “Especially in the Northeast with severe weather and rough roads taking a brutal toll on even the best-maintained vehicles. The brake fittings corrode from the salt, the brake lines can rub through.”
Dominick Vitelli knows how important it is to upgrade the brakes when you add that much weight in both vehicle and added passengers. But during the boom years, some companies cut corners. “Some guys were using cheap fittings that were corroding before the car even went into service.”
Vitelli, CEO of Quality Coachworks in Ontario, CA., has been in the stretch limo business for 30 years and has seen the good and the bad. When I asked him about the lack of seat belts in the back of limos, he shared that he’s seen cars were operators cut belts out completely or stuffed them down into the cushions.
On that downgrade, the doomed revelers and their driver flew past woodland and occasional houses as the road narrowed, making control of such a vehicle tricky. Though the driver did not have the proper license for carrying passengers, he was an experienced trucker. Yet, before trucks were barred at the top of the hill at Route 7, several ended up in the restaurant's parking lot off Route 30A, though no one was hurt.
As they passed Route 7, took a curve flanked by a stand of pine trees, drove over the Albany-Binghamton connector Interstate 88 and reached the crest of the downgrade, the riders got their last look at the beautiful Schoharie Valley, where in a minute or so they would meet their end. A flat-top mountain is seen in the distance.
The standard 55 mph speed limit posted at the top of the hill is quickly followed by a 50 mph sign. I noticed at the bottom that 50 was a bit too fast, though probably manageable with adequate brakes. Also, on this drive I observed that Route 30A did not appear to be particularly obscured. I am assuming that brush was cleared to improve visibility.
The limo landed not far from an unused building proclaiming "Wicked neat stuff" for sale. Ironically, the adjacent restaurant features a "great selection of New York State wines and beers." The attached boutique has an assortment of "wicked neat" items aimed at tourists on country outings.
Arty signs in the eatery: "You get what you get and you don't throw a fit." "I can't help falling in love with you."
A makeshift memorial atop the culvert that guides the stream into the bed where the limo landed is strewn with bouquets of flowers, studded with wooden crosses with notes from the living on them, and adorned with lights and candles. Covering a large cross are notes, including one reading, "Sgt. (ret.) Michael O. Ukaj, Love, Mom and Dad." Ukaj was a 34-year-old veteran.
Others killed were sweethearts Amanda Halse, 26, and Patrick Cushing, 31; Erin and Shane McGowan, 34 and 30 respectively; and Amy and Axel Steenburg, both 29.
Also Mary and Rob Dyson, 33 and 34; Abigail and Adam Jackson, both 34; and Rich Steenburg, 34;
Also Amanda Rivenburg, 29; Rachael Cavosie, 30; and sweethearts Matthew Coons and Savannah Bursese, 27 and 23.
All were limo passengers.
Brian Hough and James Schnurr, 46 and 70, were killed by their own SUV as it slammed into them after being struck by the limo.
As they passed Route 7, took a curve flanked by a stand of pine trees, drove over the Albany-Binghamton connector Interstate 88 and reached the crest of the downgrade, the riders got their last look at the beautiful Schoharie Valley, where in a minute or so they would meet their end. A flat-top mountain is seen in the distance.
The standard 55 mph speed limit posted at the top of the hill is quickly followed by a 50 mph sign. I noticed at the bottom that 50 was a bit too fast, though probably manageable with adequate brakes. Also, on this drive I observed that Route 30A did not appear to be particularly obscured. I am assuming that brush was cleared to improve visibility.
The limo landed not far from an unused building proclaiming "Wicked neat stuff" for sale. Ironically, the adjacent restaurant features a "great selection of New York State wines and beers." The attached boutique has an assortment of "wicked neat" items aimed at tourists on country outings.
Arty signs in the eatery: "You get what you get and you don't throw a fit." "I can't help falling in love with you."
A makeshift memorial atop the culvert that guides the stream into the bed where the limo landed is strewn with bouquets of flowers, studded with wooden crosses with notes from the living on them, and adorned with lights and candles. Covering a large cross are notes, including one reading, "Sgt. (ret.) Michael O. Ukaj, Love, Mom and Dad." Ukaj was a 34-year-old veteran.
Others killed were sweethearts Amanda Halse, 26, and Patrick Cushing, 31; Erin and Shane McGowan, 34 and 30 respectively; and Amy and Axel Steenburg, both 29.
Also Mary and Rob Dyson, 33 and 34; Abigail and Adam Jackson, both 34; and Rich Steenburg, 34;
Also Amanda Rivenburg, 29; Rachael Cavosie, 30; and sweethearts Matthew Coons and Savannah Bursese, 27 and 23.
All were limo passengers.
Brian Hough and James Schnurr, 46 and 70, were killed by their own SUV as it slammed into them after being struck by the limo.
Hometowns of deceased
Limousine Passengers:
Axel J. Steenburg, 29, Amsterdam, NY
Richard M. Steenburg, 34, Johnstown, NY
Amy L. Steenburg, 29, Amsterdam, NY
Allison King, 31, Ballston Spa, NY
Mary E. Dyson, 33, Watertown, NY
Robert J. Dyson, 34, Watertown, NY
Abigail M. Jackson, 34, Amsterdam, NY
Matthew W. Coons, 27, Johnstown, NY
Savannah D. Bursese, 24, Johnstown, NY
Patrick K. Cushing, 31, Troy, NY
Amanda D. Halse, 26, Troy, NY
Erin R. McGowan, 34, Amsterdam, NY
Shane T. McGowan, 30, Amsterdam, NY
Amanda Rivenburg, 29, Colonie, NY
Adam G. Jackson, 34, Amsterdam, NY
Rachael K. Cavosie, 30, Waterford, NY
Michael C. Ukaj, 34, Johnstown, NY
Limousine Driver:
Scott T. Lisinicchia, 53, Lake George, NY
Pedestrians:
Brian Hough, 46, Moravia, NY
James Schnurr, 70, Kerhonkson, NY
Post script: I haven't been able to shake the feeling I get when looking upon photos of the victims that I have known a number of them personally -- even though I haven't. I suppose that might stem from my age. Certain physical and personality types tend to recur. So one thinks, "Say I recognize him or her" because of the similarity in appearance to someone one knew not so long ago. The other factor in this connection is also, I would say, a product of my age: the realization that we are all brothers and sisters, sons and daughters...
Memorial scenes
https://dailygazette.com/article/2018/10/14/schoharie-limo-tragedy-scenes-from-friday-and-saturday
More Times Union photos
https://www.timesunion.com/news/article/Oct-28-benefit-concert-set-for-families-of-limo-13310958.php#photo-16326566
Prof, father-in-law mown down
as three relatives are spared
https://www.syracuse.com/news/index.ssf/2018/10/oswego_prof_killed_in_upstate_ny_limo_crash_was_enroute_to_wedding_when_tragedy.html
End of the road? On Hegel and Death
http://zion78.blogspot.com/2018/10/end-of-road.html
2 brothers were like peanut butter and jelly
https://www.nbcnews.com/news/us-news/brothers-killed-fatal-limo-crash-were-peanut-butter-jelly-n925036
They aren't coming home: 4 daughters mourned
https://www.nytimes.com/2018/10/17/nyregion/schoharie-limo-crash-victims-sisters.html
From there, the facts settled in more slowly: They were now grandparents to three orphans, a 16-month-old, a 2-year-old and a 4-year-old.
'God made a mistake,' says 10-year-old daughter
https://www.wlwt.com/article/god-made-a-mistake-family-remembers-brothers-lost-in-horrific-limo-crash/24215439
Road leaves drivers few options
https://dailygazette.com/article/2018/10/20/letters-to-the-editor
'They were the perfect couple'
https://cnycentral.com/news/local/fundraiser-to-benefit-moravia-woman-who-lost-husband-father-in-horrific-limo-crash
Limo owners sued in Rivenberg death
https://media.news10.com/nxs-wtentv-media-us-east-1/document_dev/2018/11/19/Filed%20S_AMP_C_1542648085824_62612398_ver1.0.pdf
News flash: 02.14.19
Limo reportedly swerved to avoid stopped vehicle
https://www.watertowndailytimes.com/national/report-limo-driver-in-deadly-schoharie-crash-swerved-to-avoid-car-20190213
If so, this would imply that the driver had been unable to slow the limo, and that brakes may have been inoperative.
News flash 02.13.19:
Feds leave families in the dark
https://www.timesunion.com/news/article/Grieving-families-offered-few-answers-in-NTSB-s-13610879.php
No surprise there. As part of the agreement between the DA and the feds, the NTSB said it will not release its findings until the criminal case is complete. It seems fair to suppose that the DA doesn't want defense attorneys to have access to evidence that might differ from State Police findings.
News flash 02.12.19:
Skimpy initial federal report issued
https://wnyt.com/wnytimages/repository/cs/files/HWY19MH001-preliminary-report.pdf
News flash 01.30.19:
DA gains gag order on federal probe
https://www.mytwintiers.com/news/ntsb-to-get-access-to-limo-involved-in-schoharie-crash/1738941535
News flash 12.20.18:
New York blocks federal probe of limo crash
Update 12.21.18
Feds lash DA on slow limo probe
For all flesh is as grass, and all the glory of man as the flower of grass. The grass withereth, and the flower thereof falleth away: But the word of the Lord endureth for ever. -- Peter 1:24–25
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