“Dr Fauci orchestrated Covid cover-up” (The Times)
Yawn.
I was writing this in my weekly columns for the Santa Barbara News-Press five years ago.
Unfortunately, too many sheeple preferred the comforting embrace of a government-scripted, mainstream-delivered fairy tale—one that persuaded millions to stand six feet apart, wear face napkins, and submit to lockdowns that wrecked businesses, educations, mental health, and whatever remained of common sense.
Now comes a CIA whistleblower revealing that Dr. Anthony Fauci helped steer investigators away from the lab-leak theory, and did so because he secretly funded the Wuhan lab in violation of government policy.
The Times reports that what was once denounced as “dangerous conspiracy theory” was actually closer to “suppressed inquiry.”
So let us review the choreography:
Question the official narrative? You were a crank.
Suggest the virus may have escaped from a lab in Wuhan conducting coronavirus research: Tin-foil haberdashery.
Object to school closures or raise an eyebrow at mask mandates: Shamed.
The pandemic produced a new priesthood: public-health commissars, cable-news hysterics, and social-media censors who treated dissent as heresy.
And now—slow drumroll—we are expected to greet these revelations with sober astonishment.
No astonishment here.
The real virus was institutional obedience.
“WHO chief warns there ‘will be more hantavirus cases in the coming weeks’” (Metro)
The formula remains unchanged: Find alarming medical anomaly, add an ominous forecast, release experts, cause media hyperventilation.
COVID may be over but one detects a familiar institutional yearning—a wistful nostalgia for the golden age of emergency decrees, televised dread, and populations obeying reckless senselessness.
Yes, pandemic theater appears to be touring indefinitely.
“Hantavirus and Psychological Bioterrorism” (Malone News)
Psychological Bioterrorism is the weaponization of fear about disease in order to manipulate individuals, populations, markets, and governments. Sometimes the objective is political. Sometimes financial. Sometimes bureaucratic. Often, it is all three at once.
Dr. Alexander Kouzminov, a former Soviet-Russian intelligence officer with experience in biological espionage and operations, in 2017, described how fear of infectious disease can be strategically amplified to shape public behavior, influence governments, and create opportunities for those positioned to benefit from the panic.
“That process is called psychological bioterrorism.
“Once you understand the framework, you start seeing the pattern everywhere.
“A virus or some other pathogen emerges somewhere in the world. The media shifts into apocalyptic mode. Experts appear to be predicting catastrophe. Politicians declare emergencies. Pharmaceutical companies announce new products. Social media turns into a digital panic attack. And ordinary people, who just wanted to walk the dog, suddenly feel like civilization is one cough away from collapse.”
“Whistleblower claims CIA seized MK Ultra, JFK assassination files from Tulsi Gabbard’s office” (Hindustan Times)
In a display of institutional self-preservation, the CIA moved to prevent the release of documents concerning MKUltra and the JFK assassination by forcibly retrieving them from the very office tasked with making them public.
One imagines the scene: “Quick! The American people may learn something!”
For decades, the intelligence community has assured us that all sensitive historical files are withheld only for the noblest of reasons: national security, protecting sources, blah, blah, blah.
Every time documents edge toward daylight—even when the President of the United States orders their release—someone in a dark suit develops an acute case of anti-transparency syndrome, in this instance, assisted by a CIA SWAT team.
The surest way to know a file matters is when the government sprints to hide it.
“California billionaires find bliss in Nevada border town while fleeing wealth tax” (California Post)
California has spent years perfecting a business model that combines punitive taxation, bureaucratic strangulation, regulatory sadism, and housing costs through the roof.
The state’s progressive practice is charmingly simple:
Over-tax the productive. Then act shocked when they leave.
And the very rich don’t even have to flee to Texas or Florida.
They need only cross the border to Incline Village—and flip Cali the bird from neighboring Nevada!
“Gavin Newsom’s controversial ‘free diapers’ program gets quiet contracting carve-out” (California Post)
“Quiet contracting carve-out”?
That’s a wonderfully elegant bureaucratic phrase—meant to deceive, of course.
Translation: No bidding process.
California’s normal competitive procurement rules were apparently set aside.
Nobody got a chance to propose a cheaper alternative.
And then, in an astonishing coincidence, Gavin Newsom’s wife, Jennifer, is connected to California Partners Project, which has the contract.
Nothing says public trust like contracts awarded in a room nobody else was invited into.
“Inside Jack Schlossberg’s Chaotic Campaign to Revive Camelot” (NYTs)
Just hours into Day One, the candidate abruptly revised his campaign strategy. Forget dialing for dollars. He needed a nap. Then disappeared for the rest of the day.
Says it all.
But wait, there’s more…
In just six months, Schlossberg burned through at least two campaign managers, two field directors, and a gaggle of advisers.
Some were unaware they’d been dismissed because Schlossberg neglected to mention it.
Jack may grow up one day. But don’t count on it. He was born with a silver spoon up his ass—and it’s stuck.
“Trump in China” (BBC)
Much ado about very little.
Whatever frequency you tune into, nothing fundamental about the Chinese Communist Party has changed.
Not one iota.
Their gameplay is as simple as it is straightforward: Wait out Donald Trump’s second term as president.
Democracies lurch. Elections happen. Policies somersault. Washington thinks in news cycles.
The CCP thinks in dynastic time.
Beijing’s objective remains what it has long been: economic leverage abroad, technological acquisition, strategic expansion, Taiwan folded into the mother ship.
If Marco Rubio becomes president, Beijing waits longer.
If a softer administration arrives, Beijing recalculates accordingly.
Patience is their operating system.
Meanwhile: espionage, influence operations, intellectual property theft, strategic land purchases inside the USA, and China’s broader geopolitical partnerships continue as before.
And what did Xi gain from Trump’s visit?
The message for domestic Chinese consumption: America was eager to come to us. (Authoritarian systems prize symbolism.)
If meetings, summits, “constructive dialogue,” or vague framework agreements slow escalation of tariffs and sanctions, Beijing wins breathing room.
Any high-level diplomatic visit is intelligence harvest season.
Who’s in Trump’s orbit? Who influences him the most? What irritates him? What vanity buttons work best? What concessions matter?
The Chinese are disciplined listeners.
Taiwan. Beijing watches for signals. Did Trump emphasize Taiwan? Downplay it? Treat it transactionally? Mention defense ambiguously? Every nuance gets parsed.
China’s ideal outcome: No humiliating concessions. Maximum delay. Maximum ambiguity while outlasting Trump.
Meanwhile…
A pair of very welcome headlines from UK tabloids:
“Moscow rocked by blistering drone strikes” (The Sun)
“Putin ‘could be toppled in ‘60s-style palace coup’ as Russian elites ‘turn’ on him” (The Star)
About friggin’ time.
And finally…
“I‘m a pastor who attended a secret UFO disclosure meeting. We saw images of ‘translucent beings’ that chilled me to the bone” (Daily Mail)
Pastor Joseph Zupetz was invited to a private meeting in Tennessee, where intelligence insiders discussed the idea that unidentified objects could be inter-dimensional beings.
“At the meeting,” he said, “I was shown images of entities that were translucent, standing in a wooded environment, with long arms and legs.”
Big deal—I already have a Polaroid of such beings…
The line between intelligence briefing and Comic-Con panel continues to blur.
And there’s more: Looking over some pics I took of the sky over Butterfly Beach on a moody day, I discovered I’d captured a flying saucer…
…along with an alien peering out the right-side windows…
What a week—whew!
“WE GIVE A HOOT!”
And you should too.
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