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Dr. Fauci Lets an Inconvenient Truth About COVID Slip out During Interview

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2020 just stunk for a variety of reasons, with the Wuhan virus pandemic being right there at the top of the list.

Along with the tragic deaths brought about by COVID and the millions more cases suffered among those who thankfully survived it came the dictatorial lockdown mandates in Democrat-run cities and states, as well as the mask shaming from our intellectual (not to mention wildly hypocritical) betters in the mainstream media and on the left who thought they were the ultimate authority when it came to how best to run other people’s lives. As it turns out, they were the ultimate authority in one aspect – on how to ruin people’s lives.

Related to the COVID outbreak and all the political games that unfortunately came with it was the deliberate undermining of Trump-touted treatments for the virus, like hydroxychloroquine and then the vaccine in the months prior to it becoming available.

There was also the mass hysteria from The Usual Suspects over Trump’s repeated use of the term “China virus” to accurately describe the origins of COVID-19. Similarly, pearls were routinely clutched in the same circles any time a Republican uttered any variance of the term, like “Wuhan virus,” “Wuhan coronavirus,” and the like. When there was an alleged spike in anti-Asian hate crimes last year, Trump’s critics naturally blamed him and other Republicans for emphasizing the fact that the virus originated in Wuhan, China, because apparently he wasn’t supposed to remind people of that important detail.

With all of that in mind, it might surprise some folks – or maybe not surprise them at all – to hear how President Biden’s chief medical adviser Anthony Fauci, who was also a key member of Trump’s coronavirus task force last year (although the two frequently disagreed) referred to the original strain of the COVID virus during Fox Business interview earlier today:

Shocking! I mean we’ve all been reliably informed how referencing “Wuhan” or “China” as it relates to the coronavirus is “racist” and “xenophobic.” I mean then-Democratic presidential candidate Joe Biden told us so many times last year:

But wait, there’s more.

Earlier this week during a Tuesday White House press briefing involving Fauci and other members of Biden’s COVID response team, Fauci also used the term “Wuhan strain” to make a similar point to the one he made in the Fox Business interview:

DR. FAUCI: You know, that’s an excellent question. So, let me explain. The vaccines that we use are directed against the original, what we call, “ancestral strain” or the “Wuhan strain.” So, you get a certain level of antibodies that are specific against that strain. Then we had the evolution of variants, including, for example, the very problematic Delta variant.

Anyone wondering why we haven’t heard the normally predictable howls of outrage from the usual corners in response to Fauci’s repeated use of the term “Wuhan strain” this week only needs to remember that much of what we’ve been told by the press and on the left over the last 18 months has been part of a vast political theater that was designed to benefit one side politically.

Like it was with the “xenophobic” travel bans, the “I don’t trust this vaccine under Trump” comments, the “you’re a murderer if you don’t wear a mask” attitudes displayed by Democrats and the media last year, it’s ok if you implement travel bans and go around maskless as long as you’re a Democrat like St. Fauci or Joe Biden. That goes double for anyone on the left who calls the original strain of COVID-19 the “Wuhan strain.”

Anyone in the media who is still left wondering why most conservatives and independent-minded people often ignore the “guidance” news outlets put forth needs to look no further than the blatant double standards that were on prominent display during the height of the pandemic in this country. At a certain point, people just get fed up with it. And I can’t say as I blame them.

Flashback: Dr. Fauci Gives Very Unscience-y Answer When Asked ‘What’s the Science’ by CNN, the Reactions Were Brutal

Democrats Kneecapped Themselves With Their Defense of China, According to Latest Poll

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The “party of science” sure was adamant that no one blames the spread of COVID-19 on China. In fact, there was a very large effort by mainstream leftist sources that China is viewed as a leader in combatting the virus.

At one point, CNN was even suggesting that China was the good guys in this story while then-President Donald Trump was the villain responsible for everything. As I covered in this video last year, our media was teaching China how to manipulate narratives in our own country with CNN being the worst of offenders.

Fast forward to today, and the media is still largely defensive of China, but the cat’s out of the bag. Too much evidence has been released that shows the connection of not only the virus being lab-created, but that our own Fauci-run NSAID helped fund its creation.

This doesn’t sit well with the American people who not only believe that China is fully responsible for it all but that they need to pay America back for its mistake.

According to Fox News, a new poll has shown that an overwhelming majority of Americans disagree with Democrats on China:

A new poll shows that Americans overwhelmingly believed that the coronavirus pandemic stemmed from a lab leak in Wuhan, China, and that the Chinese government subsequently lied about it.

The Ronald Reagan Institute’s 2021 National Defense Survey posed a number of questions related to China and its position in relation to the U.S., including one regarding the origins of COVID-19.

“When asked about the theory that the coronavirus was developed by scientists working at a lab in Wuhan and accidentally leaked, and that the Chinese government then lied about it, nearly three quarters (72%) of Americans believe it is likely, with 42% saying it is very likely,” a report by the Reagan Institute said, discussing the poll results.

In a very rare showing of actual unity, this belief is carried between political parties:

Not only did the survey show that most participants believe the pandemic leaked from a Chinese lab, majorities of those from both parties and independents felt the same way. Of Republicans polled, 86% believed it was likely that COVID-19 leaked from a Wuhan lab, while 61% of Democrats and 67% of independents agreed.

The Democrats bet on the wrong horse when they thought that their media dominance could control the narrative and people would believe that China was more or less innocent of all charges. Now the question is, how can they effectively backpedal if they even can.

It’s clear that there’s some relationship between the left and China. Whether it’s business, ideological, or both, the left is incredibly friendly to our foreign enemy, and walking back in their defense of China is going to be a tough sell to at least the Independents and the Republicans.

But if Republicans really wanted to seize and pounce here, they could buckle down on this idea that Americans, in general, are indeed owed reparations (because we are) from the communist nation. What form that might take can be discussed by our elected leaders, but if most Americans believe China needs to pony up and Democrats are consistently running defense for them, then this is an obvious divide that Republicans should highlight between them and the Democrat party.

Because the question does, indeed, need to be asked: whose side are they on?

The WTO Needs to Modernize on the Right Things — and Reject the Wrong Things

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I am about as anti-globalist as one can possibly be.

The United Nations (UN) is a titanic joke – and a titanic waste of time, money, and prime New York real estate.

The North Atlantic Treaty Organization (NATO) should have closed up shop five seconds after the Berlin Wall fell. Which was thirty-two years ago.

The World Health Organization (WHO) – a subsidiary of the UN – is an unmitigated disaster. More on that in a bit.

However, the World Trade Organization (WTO) is a global entity that I think could actually serve a useful purpose.  Because if we are going to engage in global trade – and we are – we need a global arbiter of things global trade.

I say “could” serve a useful purpose – because the WTO once actually did. But times and things have changed – and the WTO hasn’t. Shocker, I know: A giant, global, multi-government bureaucracy not rapidly adapting as the world around it does.

The WTO could again be useful. If it modernizes the right ways – and not the wrong ways. Unfortunately, it’s being dragged, cajoled, and bribed in all the wrong ones.

If it wants to save any relevancy, this has to change.

The WTO’s Fast Track to Irrelevance:

“China and others try to exploit the pact, while Western nations burden it with irrelevant goals.”

We know what Communist China has been doing to global entities.

The Fight Against China’s Bribe Machine

Bribing the World, With Chinese Characteristics:

“A most unsubtle way to pursue world domination.”

How WHO Became China’s Coronavirus Accomplice:

“Most critically, Beijing succeeded from the start in steering the World Health Organization (WHO), which both receives funding from China and is dependent on the regime of the Communist Party on many levels.”

Chinese Billionaire Convicted in United Nations Bribery Case

Outfoxed and Outgunned: How China Routed the U.S. in a U.N. Agency

US Claims China Bribes UN News Outlet for Positive Stories

To resurrect its relevancy, the WTO must put a stop to this….

The Fight Over the World Trade Organization Has Begun:

“China has used its economic power to bully, bribe, corrupt, and steal its way up the global economic supply chain, with only limited resistance from the WTO.”

Meanwhile, the planet’s Western nations – rather than in unified fashion having the WTO do something about China’s mass bribery and thuggery – are instead having the WTO do lots of somethings about very stupid, divisive, and irrelevant things:

“European and American political leaders have tried to burden the WTO with new missions such as climate change…These efforts often divide economic constituencies within democracies.…”

Here’s a thought: You’re a trade organization. How about you focus on, you know, trade?

As we mentioned, the world has changed – and the WTO hasn’t:

“(O)ver the past decade or more, the WTO system has lost its leadership role in expanding a liberal, rules-based global order.  This is partly because of institutional sclerosis and poor adaptation to the economic and global landscape.

“The WTO doesn’t effectively cover such challenges as industrial and agricultural subsidies, forced technology transfer, and rules for newer digital and services economies, including data privacy, cross-border data flows and internet commerce.”

No one is better than China at “forced technology transfer.” But “industrial and agricultural subsidies” have become a worldwide, multi-country phenomenon. About which the WTO has done almost nothing.

Of the three bad things governments do to warp trade – tariffs, import limits, and subsidies – subsidies are far and away the worst. And the US has been far-and-away subsidies’ biggest victim.

Importing Government Subsidies: The Worst of Fake ‘Free Trade’:

“(O)ther countries’ subsidies – are stealth weapons killing us from within.  They are an innumerable armada of Trojan Horses – which we have been willingly bringing inside our gates….

“Importing government subsidies – undercuts our domestic producers of…everything that is subsidized elsewhere.

“So millions of domestic producers – have been thusly driven either overseas…or into extinction.  Taking with them tens of millions of domestic jobs.”

A global subsidies regime has arisen to staggering heights all around the WTO. And the WTO has done just about nothing at all about it.

Subsidies and Market Access: New Data and Findings from the Global Trade Alert:

“Subsidies are a major source of controversy in the world trading system. The number of subsidy-related trade disputes has increased sharply since 2010, as have investigations launched into subsidised imports.

“The EU, Japan, and the US have taken exception to a Chinese development model that they view as riddled with ‘non-market practices,’ of which subsidies are a leading example.

“China bristles at having its subsidies singled out, arguing that it is not alone. Yet, at present there is no work programme at the WTO on the trade-related aspects of subsidies in general; no serious attempts to find common ground are underway.”

China has definitely made things orders-of-magnitude worse.

How Chinese Subsidies Changed the World

But China ain’t wrong – they are nowhere close to alone in the subsides business.

Foreign Subsidies – International Trade Administration

Domestic Welfare Effects of Foreign Strategic Trade Policies

Foreign Subsidies White Paper – European Commission

Subsidies in International Trade

Crop Subsidies In Foreign Countries

Foreign Sugar Subsidies Rise, Prices Plummet

But the WTO has a way to fix all of this. About which we first wrote way back in July 2013:

It’s Time for ‘Zero for Zero’ Subsidies:

“Where we approach the planet and say ‘You get rid of your trade barriers, and we’ll get rid of ours.’  In other words, we have zero protectionism – and so does everyone else.”

One would think this would be the WTO’s business model – now and always.

You’re a global trade entity – charged with keeping things global trade fair. That means removing tariffs and import limits – and ending subsidies.

If the WTO successfully implements this operational model – and sheds the Communist China bribes and Western nation climate idiocy?

Relevance and usefulness will be restored.

'Simpsons' Censored Over Episode Predicting…Censorship

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Quick, read this article before it gets taken down!

Over the years, the long-running animated show “The Simpsons” has delivered a seemingly impressive number of predictions that have come true. In truth, it is a bit less than impressive when you consider that with three decades of programming and each episode packed with both heavy dialogue and numerous comedic background flourishes, they are bound to hit on the occasional instance. The percentage of accuracy is actually quite small, is all I’m indicating.

One writer even said as much, declaring that many of the predictions were them looking back and seeing history repeating itself. Still, there have been the occasional instances that were impressive. Things, as varied as face-time technology, the USA winning a curling gold medal, as well as the Sigfried and Roy lion attack, look amusingly prescient. The show making a passing reference to President Trump in a future dream sequence is also notable.

Another piece from “The Simpsons” archives has not exactly come true, but the predictive nature still holds. Call it close-but-accurate. The sequence in question comes from a 2005 episode when the titular family was visiting China. They are in Tiananmen Square and they come across a sign, one that reads “On this site, in 1989, nothing happened.”

Ron Heflin

It is both a reference to the famed uprising that took place on the location and a wry reference to the censorship tendencies of the Chi-Com regime. It is not something that can be considered an exaggeration, given both the obsessive way the Chinese government clamps down on its internal media and controls the culture within their borders, as well as western entertainment companies showing a willingness to self-censor in order to appease the communist rulers.

Now, one or the other seems to be taking place, and it involves that very episode of “The Simpsons.” It has been discovered that the episode mentioned has been scrubbed from streaming in Hong Kong, the territory under Chinese control — and curiously, this also involves another prediction in the show. 

Years back, Disney acquired 20th Century Fox, something the show alluded to in a brief sight gag, nearly 10 years before the buyout took place.

“The Simpsons” has been a Fox Network property, and when Disney bought out the studio it had been with the idea of bolstering an entertainment catalog large enough so the company could launch a new streaming service, Disney+. All of the seasons of the show now appear on the streaming platform, and Disney+ has now reached international territories, but not all episodes appear to be available in all markets. It has been discovered that episode-12, from season #16 — when the family visits China — is not available to Hong Kong customers.

There is a question as to whether this is a true dose of governmental control. The Hong Kong Bureau of Commerce and Economic Development released a statement declaring that while they do have a censorship order in place that is a ruling that only applies to motion pictures, and the ordinance does not apply to streaming services. This only raises more questions.

China does have severe limitations on any of the Tiananmen Square content possible to be shared, but Hong Kong does not operate under the same strict guidelines as the mainland authorities. Then again, this is still an area under Chi-Com rule, so the clampdown on entertainment may be in effect but not given as much vocal support.

The other possibility is that Disney took down the episode on its own. This could be under Chinese coercion, or just as likely it was done to stave off any potential conflict with the ruling party. Disney has, as we recently seen, shown a willingness to pay deference to the human rights-abusing Chi-Coms. In the live-action adaptation of “Mulan,” the company actually paid a dose of gratitude to the police state division of the Chinese rulers.

Whichever the case, it serves up as another item to list under the growing collection of items “The Simpsons” is said to have foreseen in sagelike fashion. Making it all the funnier is that the Chinese show they have an unwillingness to laugh at themselves. Sadder is another example of an American corporation bowing to the communist dictators in the name of gathering more dollars. Or, Yuan, as it were.

Biden Release From Strategic Reserve Is a Slick Trick With a Troubling Kicker

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As we previously reported last week, the Biden team was going to tap the nation’s Strategic Petroleum Reserve claiming that they would be releasing 50 million barrels “to lower prices for Americans and address the mismatch between demand exiting the pandemic and supply.”

Except there are a few problems with this story.

Why would you tap reserves while stopping our capability to produce more oil, which is what Biden was doing? That would only deplete what we needed for emergencies while harming our energy independence. It’s a truly warped policy approach.

While some Democrats begged for a release from the reserve to help with the rising gas prices, a lot of the oil that was released wouldn’t even be going to American refineries. According to Bloomberg, a “large portion” of the 50 million barrels would go to China and India.

Even as Biden is claiming he’s doing this to help lower prices for Americans, the oil is going to prop up one of our foes — China. Not to mention that if he’s so concerned about climate change and being green why is he sending fossil fuels to China, the biggest polluter? Why would you deplete our reserves to do that? And why is Biden concerned about cutting our fossil fuel use, but not concerned about that fossil fuel use in China?

They’re selling 18 million barrels to China and India.

From Bloomberg:

That’s because the supplies will consist of sour crude, a type of oil that U.S. refiners are shunning due to its high sulfur content, which makes it more expensive to process. For some foreign buyers, though, U.S. sour crude is attractive because it’s much cheaper than the global Brent benchmark.

So how exactly is that serving Biden’s green dreams? Of course, those dreams seem to only apply to the U.S., Biden doesn’t seem to have an issue with selling fossil fuel to our foes. And if our refineries don’t want to refine it, why is it in our reserves? Is that a tale of more regulations that are ultimately harmful to our interests?

Biden likely wouldn’t have needed to do any of this had he just not started a war on our energy independence, if he’d just left what President Donald Trump had done in place. He cut the Keystone XL pipeline, costing thousands of anticipated jobs as well as the Willow Project to drill in Alaska. He also is looking into what the effect of cutting Line 5 would be, a line essential to providing oil to the Americans. Meanwhile, he cut sanctions on the Nord Stream 2 pipeline, helping Russia.

All of this has left us with rising prices. The average now is $3.39 for regular when it was $2.127 at the same time last year. The average in California is even higher.

As our Andrew Malcolm observed, the release is more a propaganda ploy than anything else.

First of all, it’s a drop in the barrel, literally. May seem large, But it’s merely eight percent of the reserve. That’s less than three days’ average U.S. domestic oil use and only 44 hours of OPEC production.

This latest action, with the release and the sale, leaves us with more questions — a completely problematic approach.