Good morning,
Impeachment Trial
It’s a stirring process to watch Senators talk about their fears and what was happening on the Senate floor the day an angry mob attacked the Capitol, and it’s hard not to be angry watching the video presented officially at Trumps impeachment trial yesterday.
Watch Rep. Jamie Raskin’s emotional presentation and if you are not moved by that, nothing will jar your world, because he’s a father and a statesman who clearly saw the danger to his kids who were in the Capitol that day hiding under desks, and he clearly see’s the danger to the nation if Trump is not held accountable for the riot designed to stop The Senate from confirming a free and fair election.
https://www.politico.com/news/2021/02/09/jamie-raskin-impeachment-speech-468030
If you have yet to watch the impeachment video presentation see this.
The Senate has found the constitution allows for the trying of a President for impeachment after he leaves office despite a rambling hard to understand defense by Trump’s attorney’s who seemed ill prepared.
https://www.nytimes.com/2021/02/09/us/politics/trump-impeachment-trial-senate.html
Bottom line - yes the vote to convict Trump may fail, because it will largely be divided down political lines in The Senate, but the holding of the trial will show, much like a public inquiry in other systems, that Trump directed the attack on democracy, and those who vote to support him, will be remembered by the electorate and by history. I think you have to watch the proceedings, before you comment on whether it was necessary to impeach because we tend to want to move on from events without understanding or processing them, and this event was momentous for America’s democracy, and potentially for other countries watching now.
Trump faces a number of possible criminal prosecutions, many not necessarily related to the riot.
W.H.O. and China
The World health Organization investigative team held a news conference yesterday that will puzzle many watching the investigation into the origins of Covid19. They tried to discount the idea the virus escaped from the Wuhan lab, but offered no other convincing evidence on origins and even gave credence to the China theory the virus could have come from imported frozen food. Where is the detail of the experiments that took place in the lab? On Back Story with Dana Lewis podcast we interviewed the former Ass. Sec. Of Defense Andy Weber on ‘gain of function’ experiments that were previously documented, and known to be taking place in Wuhan and The W.H.O. did not address in their news conf.
Andy Weber - CSR: (18:30)
On coronavirus. It's essentially, um, working in the laboratory, um, often with animals to try to, uh, evolve the virus. So it transmits more easily between animals in order to, in theory, to be able to prevent a spillover event from animals to humans. Personally, think that the risks of doing this type of research, um, far outweigh any potential benefit.
Dana Lewis: (19:05)
What makes you think it was gained a function?
Andy Weber - CSR: (19:10)
Well, it's one of those data points that we don't have. I mean, were they continuing to do this type of gain of function work beyond 2015? I don't know. Um, I don't know the answer to that. I think it's one of the questions that, uh, is fairly easy to answer as well as, you know, what type of animals were they using in the laboratory, et cetera. But I also don't quite understand what, what exactly is meant by naturally occurring. Um, you know, I'm not saying that this was a genetically engineered by a weapon. I think that has been totally discounted, but they could use natural methods of evolving it from generation to generation in animals, uh, doing what they would consider legitimate public health research. I mean, the, the us national institutes of health that Tony Fauci runs is currently funding gain of function research in the Netherlands and elsewhere that's on, on the flu virus, the risk of, of creating, uh, a super flu and then having it escape from a laboratory, either through a worker getting infected and taking it home, um, or a release into the environment, I think far outweighs the medical benefit of conducting this type of research.
Dana Lewis: (20:35)
It was, it was banned in the U S and in 2014, and then it was
Andy Weber - CSR: (20:39)
There was a, there was a moratorium on this type of research. Um, after the, uh, the Dutch scientist was attempting to publish a paper purporting to have made, uh, the highly pathogenic avian influenza virus, uh, more easily transmissible, uh, in an experiment with ferrets. Um, but that moratorium was lifted. Um, I believe in 2017. So such research continues to be funded by the United States government. And I, I just think it's an unjustifiable, uh, risk.
The full interview is here: https://www.buzzsprout.com/1016881/6565870
What gain of function experiments were still taking place in the lab? Question is unanswered and The W.H.O. wasn’t asked and didn’t offer.
Covid19 Jail?
The UK Government has announced anyone arriving from a list of countries with new variant outbreaks, must quarantine for 10 days, and if they don’t a new penalty threatening jail time for those who might break the rules.
The quarantine will begin feb. 15 and the jail terms could be up to 10 years!
https://www.itv.com/news/2021-02-09/ten-year-jail-terms-for-breaking-covid-quarantine-rules-as-enforcement-of-border-controls-increases
Noteworthy - the list of countries with new variants, has 33 nations on it which tells you how wide the spread of The South African variant and Brazil variants have become, and the dangers to the current vaccines being outpaced are extreme.
Myanmar
Tens of thousands of protesters are in the streets demanding an end to the military coup. The police are using more force and now some have opened fire and one woman was shot in the head. On CNN this morning an unidentified journalist, who cannot publish her name for fear of arrest, said people are standing up to marshal law and that “the military has used indiscriminate shooting in the past, and that this is a slow escalation of violence”.
https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/world-asia-56005909