Quick Jots: June 2023
Trump indictment
#donaldtrump #media
Here we go again. The classified information rap is getting brought up again and it doesn't look good for Trump. He was indicted for mishandling classified documents and obstructing justice. While it may be against the law, these aren't laws that libertarians really believe should be laws, and maybe only for a limited scope for classified documents. Either way, I'm having trouble really caring about this. There have been so many cries of wolf that this is pretty much just background noise now. Indict him of something real like human rights abuses in Yemen and Somalia and I'll pay attention and cheer it on.
Online classes linked with lower test scores
#education #covid-19
Shutting down schools, it seems, is bad for education. A study concluded that those that retained in-person learning had drastically lower standardized test score declines than areas that closed schools. Who could have predicted this? Not teacher's unions, apparently, that repeatedly tried to extend school closures. The University of Phoenix objects to the study on the grounds that it is devastating to its business model.
UK censored COVID-19 information
#covid-19
The Telegraph reported that the British government had a secret unit that "worked with" (in other words, forced) social media companies to censor viewpoints that dissented from the approved government opinion. Certain prominent critics were secretly monitored and opposing posts flagged. Public opinion was manipulated through underhanded tactics.
Patient Zero probably from Wuhan Institute of Virology
#covid-19
Remember how the lab-leak theory was suppressed in social media? Remember how those that dared mention the lab leak theory were called racist (how, again?), while they pushed the narrative of Chinese people eating bats and pangolins? Remember how statists beat their chests, pointing at the supposedly lassiez-faire wet markets producing a deadly virus, taunting libertarians? Remember how the New York Times and CNN quietly reversed course on the subject with nary an apology? I do. These authoritarian boot-lickers were dealt yet another blow as there appears to be evidence that patients zero were scientists who worked at the Institute of Virology in Wuhan. Center stage is Ben Hu, who led the gain of function research at the lab. The two other people that appeared to have first contracted the virus were Yu Ping and Yan Zhu, who also worked at the lab. Huh. The three of them must have coincidentally gotten together around that time and shared a pangolin at the dinner table.
