“WHEN DO WE DEPLOY THE NEW VARIANT?”

[Secretary of State for Health and Social Care] Matt Hancock wanted to “deploy” a new Covid variant to “frighten the pants off” the public and ensure they complied with lockdown, leaked messages seen by The Telegraph have revealed.
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In a WhatsApp conversation on Dec 13, obtained by The Telegraph, Damon Poole – one of Mr Hancock’s media advisers – informed his boss that Tory MPs were “furious already about the prospect” of stricter Covid measures and suggested “we can roll pitch with the new strain”.

The comment suggested that they believed the strain could be helpful in preparing the ground for a future lockdown and tougher restrictions in the run-up to Christmas 2020.

Mr Hancock then replied: “We frighten the pants off everyone with the new strain.”

Mr Poole agreed, saying: “Yep that’s what will get proper bahviour [sic] change.”

Plus: “Just as many U.S. liberals have attacked Elon Musk for releasing the Twitter files, many journalists in the U.K. have criticized the Telegraph and reporter Isabel Oakeshott. . . . It is a weird aspect of our present historical moment: journalists hate journalism.”

FOLLOW THE SCIENCE: “Dr. Anthony Fauci – who offshored banned gain-of-function research to make bat coronaviruses more transmissible to humans – has been accused by Congressional investigators of having ‘prompted’ the fabrication of a paper by a cadre of scientists aimed at disproving the Covid-19 lab-leak theory.”

JEFF GOLDSTEIN: Netflix, Opie, and White Supremacy: Leftists hope the revolution will be binge watched.

OPEN THREAD: Enjoy yourselves.

HEATHER MAC DONALD: The feminization of the American university is all but complete.

SPACE: Japan to make 2nd launch attempt of new H3 rocket on March 6 after delay. How to watch it live.

ME ON SUBSTACK: How I Was Wrong About Covid. With a notation that Charlie Martin and Sarah Hoyt were right all along.

If you like it, please subscribe. (Bumped).

THAT’S HOW IT USUALLY WORKS: CUNY embraces mediocrity in the name of equity — at students’ expense.

SPLITTING: Conservatives Want to Secede From Oregon, and Leftists Are ENRAGED.

This isn’t new, I wrote about it in my paper on state secession, but these state secession movements are getting stronger. Eastern California, Oregon, and Washington, southern Illinois, upstate New York, etc. They want to get away from the woke metro areas before they’re dragged down.

THINGS WORTH REMEMBERING: W. H. Auden’s Poignant Embrace.

THE FARMERS ARE BACK! Thousands of Tractors Converge on Brussels to Protest Green Agenda.

IT’S ALMOST AS IF EMPLOYERS PREFER MENTALLY STABLE EMPLOYEES: Resumes including ‘they/them’ pronouns are more likely to be overlooked, new report finds.

JUST NBC THE NETWORK’S PRIORITIES!

Rising violent crime rates and growing perceptions of unease in major cities has prompted party strategists and officials to call for a tougher approach to counter Republican attacks. https://t.co/hxAuzK8HAQ

— NBC Politics (@NBCPolitics) March 4, 2023

Evergreen:

THE REAL PROBLEM IS THAT DEMOCRATS ARE LOSING, WHICH ALWAYS CALLS FOR THE SYSTEM TO BE CHANGED SO THAT THEY WIN: “To summarize, some unknown members of the public (who may be on the faculty of the UT Law School) have this perception. DOJ does not share this perception. But DOJ filed the motion on the basis of this perception. . . . Are federal judges (not named John Roberts) supposed to base their decisions on the basis of public perception? DOJ says, ‘sort of.'”

CAPT. “SULLY” SULLENBERGER: Safety in the skies is paramount. Don’t cheapen pilot training and experience.

In backrooms and dark corners, airline lobbyists, particularly the Regional Airline Association, are scurrying all over Washington, still trying to undo all the hard work that has been done to make air travel the safest form of transportation in human history. They’re doing this for the usual reasons. They want to try to cheapen pilot training and levels of experience for their own financial gain and expedience. They’re trying to do what is easier and cheaper for them, not what is best for passengers or crews, or for their industry.

Once again, it is necessary that those of us who deeply understand that safety really must be the priority are having to refight the same battles that we have had to fight too many times before.

What, and give up the potential for cool billboards and social media ads by increasingly woke airlines? United Airlines Touts All-LGBTQ Flight Crew; Customers Not Amused.

UNEXPECTEDLY! ‘I can’t get my money out:’ Billionaire investor Mark Mobius says China is restricting flows of capital out of the country.

Mark Mobius, a pioneer in emerging markets investing, said China is restricting investment outflows from the country, a move that would be taking place as the world’s second-largest economy is trying to shake off pressure from COVID-19 lockdowns.

“I’m personally affected because I have an account with HSBC in Shanghai. I can’t get my money out. The government is restricting the flow of money out of the country,” Mobius said on Thursday on the Fox Business show “Mornings with Maria”. “So I would be very, very careful investing in China,” the founder of Mobius Capital Partners said.

Mobius, who has spent decades traveling the world searching for investment opportunities, said he hasn’t been able to get an explanation about why he’s running into the restrictions in China.

Flashback to November of 2019: How to Conduct Business with Chinese Companies That See a Dark Future.

WELL, THIS SHOULD HELP WITH THE ROLLING BLACKOUTS, I EXPECT: Federal and Tennessee leaders back plans for more nuclear power in state.

BE PREPARED: LEATHERMAN, Rev Pocket Size Multitool. #CommissionEarned

I REGULARLY PRACTICE ONE-HANDED: One-Handed Practice: A critical marksmanship skill that is easy to overlook. Weirdly, I often shoot best with my left hand, better than my right or both.

READER FAVORITE: Surge Protector, Outlet Extender with Night Light. #CommissionEarned

THREE YEARS AGO I WOULDN’T HAVE DISTRUSTED THIS AT ALL: Measles exposure at massive religious event in Kentucky spurs CDC alert. Now my reaction is, tell ’em it was a Black Lives Matter rally and they’ll say it’s fine.

MICROBIOME NEWS: How gut bacteria can impact treatments for cancer.

HELLBOUND:  On this day in 1953, Joseph Vissarionovich Stalin, Chairman of the Council of Ministers of the Soviet Union and all-around murderous, totalitarian commie, kicked the bucket.

The cult of Stalin was so strong—not too different from the North Korean cult of Kim Jong-Il in our day—that hysterical crying was heard everywhere (well … maybe not in some quarters in Siberia).   Even some whose family members had been on the receiving end of Stalin’s abuses mourned.

One university student later reported, “I saw a party official weep so hard that she couldn’t even stand … and our Marxism teacher, a very nice person, actually, said:  ‘If one would ask what’s most important for me … I’d say my daughter, of course.  But if I could give her away to resurrect him, I would do that.’”

In death as in life, Stalin caused the death and destruction of the Soviet people.  Party officials hastily organized a memorial ceremony.  The crowd grew so large and so tightly packed that individuals could do nothing but go with the flow.  No one knows for sure how many were killed when the crowd began to stampede.  Estimates range from several dozens to several thousands.

NEWS YOU CAN USE: National Park Service: ‘Never push a slower friend down’ in a bear encounter.

STATIN ALTERNATIVE: Study suggests bempedoic acid reduces cholesterol, risk of heart attack.