We've talked about the United Front Work Department - an army of civilian CCP operatives that have been working for decades to influence the influencers in foreign countries - it is this network that was behind the frightening period of global censorship and vilification of those asking for a lab-leak to be investigated.

The astonishing magnitude of the cover-up is directly related to the astonishing degree of infiltration that the UFWD has been able to achieve - politicians, academics, the media, business - anyone with influence.

This is not to let those foreign entities of the hook - they will all claim naivety - 'oh, we didn't know the CCP was a fascist, totalitarian regime!' but that's crap - they're fully complicit. They fell for a mixture of mostly money, but also flattery, and probably the odd honey-trap.

There's a classic example happening in Hungary currently. The mechanism of which, you can extrapolate across the world.

BBC: On Saturday, demonstrators opposing the plan to build China's Fudan University campus in Budapest marched .. to the parliament building.

The construction of the campus .. is estimated to cost about $1.8bn (£1.2bn). This is more than the Orban government spent on its entire higher-education system in 2019.

Some $1.5bn of the costs will be provided by a loan from a Chinese bank, documents obtained by Direkt36, a Hungarian investigative-journalism outlet, showed.

The right-wing government of PM Viktor Orban has close ties with Beijing.

Earlier this month, Hungary blocked an EU statement criticising China's treatment of Hong Kong.

The thing about the CCP is that it doesn't care if you're right wing or left wing - it's only motivation is to centralize power. It does this by corrupting those with power in foreign countries.

Around two thirds of Hungarians do not support the Chinese university.

This last point is interesting - it shows the massive disconnect between the power-wielders and the general public. As we mentioned before, there appears to have been a ban on polls asking the public about the origin of the virus and whether they think a lab-leak should be investigated - most likely coz they've done the polls and found that a large majority think the experts are full of shit.

The battle is far from over, but Covid has at least laid bare the extent to which our elites are collaborating with the CCP.

They fell for a mixture of mostly money, but also flattery, and probably the odd honey-trap.

And I would add power. Money and power drive decisions, policy, and, I'm afraid, science. No doubt when these western scientists are given the red carpet when they go to China, and then more support when they return home, it's all pretty heady and addictive. "To hell with facts. I'm being rewarded so well for my science, it must be right! And if not, I'll make it so!" So flattery, yes, but flattery with some extras attached.

There's a classic example happening in Hungary currently. The mechanism of which, you can extrapolate across the world.

I love the Mayor's way of dealing with this! I mean, it's not stopping the uni, but it's a good one:

The campus is also opposed by Mayor of Budapest Gergely Karacsony, who announced earlier this week that he was naming streets in the area after the victims of China's human rights violations.

Among four new street signs include Free Hong Kong Road, Dalai Lama Street and Uyghur Martyrs' Road, after the mainly Muslim ethnic group that international governments say has been the victim of sustained human rights abuses and genocide in Xinjiang, China.

The right-wing government of PM Viktor Orban has close ties with Beijing.

Earlier this month, Hungary blocked an EU statement criticising China's treatment of Hong Kong.

I didn't know one EU country could do that. Is it an all or nothing thing? Like the UN? (I think the UN works that way, anyway.)

Around two thirds of Hungarians do not support the Chinese university.

This last point is interesting - it shows the massive disconnect between the power-wielders and the general public. As we mentioned before, there appears to have been a ban on polls asking the public about the origin of the virus and whether they think a lab-leak should be investigated - most likely coz they've done the polls and found that a large majority think the experts are full of shit.

Well, you see this in Japan now with regards to the Olympics. Japanese are overwhelmingly opposed to having them, and yet they're being forced on the population. Again, money and power overrides public consensus.

The battle is far from over, but Covid has at least laid bare the extent to which our elites are collaborating with the CCP.

Yes, I hope so. But let's not forget, as an analogy, the role the media and all the other powerful stakeholders played with regards to the completely debunked claim of WMD, the claim that largely justified the 2nd Iraq war, leading to, ultimately, hundreds of thousands of deaths and millions of lives ruined. Nobody talks about that anymore. And the media got off scot-free. Not only were none of the guilty people punished, the wife of the man who blew the fraud was outed as a CIA agent by her own government as punishment, essentially ending her career while at the same time leading to the likely deaths of many of the people she was handling. That's how bad it is.

So although I hope the world is becoming a more self-aware place, I'm not holding my breath.

Yes, I hope so. But let's not forget, as an analogy, the role the media and all the other powerful stakeholders played with regards to the completely debunked claim of WMD, the claim that largely justified the 2nd Iraq war, leading to, ultimately, hundreds of thousands of deaths and millions of lives ruined. Nobody talks about that anymore. And the media got off scot-free. Not only were none of the guilty people punished, the wife of the man who blew the fraud was outed as a CIA agent by her own government as punishment, essentially ending her career while at the same time leading to the likely deaths of many of the people she was handling. That's how bad it is.

So although I hope the world is becoming a more self-aware place, I'm not holding my breath.

We can add Anthrax to that - in fact it was used to justify the whole WMD garbage and Iraq War. Turned out, after a bungling 7-year FBI investigation (led by Mueller), it was a case of 'scientists gone mad'.

What should have resulted in a deep reflection on/reform of the off-the-rails culture of biodefense scientists ended up doing the opposite - it produced a massive infusion of billions of dollars into that industry. There's an argument to be made that that resulted directly in the mess we find ourselves in today.

That's the problem when the corruption is so widespread. You need power to dismantle it - but all the ones with power are using it to preserve the system - and suppress those that oppose them.

Do you have any ideas on how we can hold people accountable for the Covid atrocity - and create a better world from this?

Aside: working on a retelling of Anthrax and it's connections to Covid - here's something crazy - of the three 'hero' doctors who first diagnosed anthrax in Bob Stevens and screamed Al Qaeda terrorist attack - two of them ended up running oxycodone scams while the third became sales-person-in-chief for the AstraZeneca trials in the US - those trials were found to have supplied false data.

They fell for a mixture of mostly money, but also flattery, and probably the odd honey-trap.

And I would add power. Money and power drive decisions, policy, and, I'm afraid, science. No doubt when these western scientists are given the red carpet when they go to China, and then more support when they return home, it's all pretty heady and addictive. "To hell with facts. I'm being rewarded so well for my science, it must be right! And if not, I'll make it so!" So flattery, yes, but flattery with some extras attached.

You've nailed it. In fact mostly power - exercising power - but also just feeling powerful - it's nice - that red carpet feeling of self-importance. It's how the Emperor's clothing crept in - or is it crept off? You go to nice conferences with other powerful, intelligent people where Bill Gates is giving a speech! Or Tedros! That's your tribe - the tribe upon whose shoulders falls the burden of steering the ship of humanity into the future for the common-good.

Once you've decided you're doing something for a 'higher truth', that's your license to lie about everything else. It's liberating - a moral un-mooring.

As we post the same people are busily justifying their deceit - with more deceit.

How to stop them getting away with it?

I'm not vindictive - not looking for life jail terms (not against it - not motivated by it) - but we can't carry on like the whole world of elites didn't just co-ordinately lie point blank to us to cover up a global atrocity - to protect the CCP.

That shit has gotta be unpacked - rebuilt - no matter how painful that is for the nice scientist people.

Seattle Times: Angela Rasmussen, a virologist at University of Saskatchewan who was not a signatory, said the letter sums up the scientific consensus that the pandemic’s roots are still unclear and echoes other calls for a fuller investigation. But she doubts it will have any impact on an issue with such profound geopolitical ramifications.

Angela Rasmussen was a leader of the cover-up cabal - a colleague of Lipkin's. DRASTIC members dueled with her on Twitter - until she blocked them.

That she is now using those words "scientific consensus" to describe her backflip - that's funny.

Angela, no-one cares about your stupid "scientific consensus" anymore. Look where it's got us so far?

The public consensus is the scientific consensus is corrupt - or very stupid. Either way it's over.

Steve Smith

In Australia they say the second most powerful position after the Prime Minister is the captain of the cricket team. Steve Smith was busted for authorizing a fielder to secretly rub one side of the ball with sandpaper on the field of play. This makes the ball swing sharply. Unfortunately, the fielder was caught doing it on camera. He tried to stuff the sandpaper into his crotch but that was caught on camera too.

After the game the Captain, Steve Smith and the fielder fronted the media. Steve Smith said (paraphrasing): 'I acknowledge mistakes were made, i will learn lessons from that and become an even better leader going forward.'

He still hadn't grasped the enormity of it in his own mind.

Whereas Steve Smith was sacked the next day and the media exploded with opprobrium, there's a danger Angela can say the above lines and get away with it.

It appears that protests have made a difference in this case.

From the article: Orban, a self-styled illiberal, has built cordial ties with China, including massive joint business projects.

That tells you all you need to know.

The thing is, Before-Covid they would have gotten away with it - they did get away with it.

Now we've got the G7 making strident statements of condemnation re human rights abuses and leaders hurriedly distancing themselves from China. The only thing that's changed from the old days of coziness is Covid.

We did out very best to cover up the lab-leak for the CCP - heck, we didn't want to stop the money flowing - but the public is not buying it - so it's time to incrementally reposition. Sorry China, it was fun while it lasted, but we have to look after our own power grubbing. See you again when all this blows over.

That's the problem when the corruption is so widespread. You need power to dismantle it - but all the ones with power are using it to preserve the system - and suppress those that oppose them.

Do you have any ideas on how we can hold people accountable for the Covid atrocity - and create a better world from this?

I do not. I'm not a religious person, but I think the major religions got it right when they basically indicate that in one form or another we're all flawed. Fear and greed essentially rule people's decisions.

On the other hand...

Blockchain technology does perhaps offer some hope. It can't be fooled, it can't be bought or faked.

Here's a typical one:
TAIPEI (Taiwan News) — The Chinese dissident artist Ai Weiwei (艾未未) has made public that Credit Suisse is closing his foundation’s bank account due to the artist’s supposed criminal record — which in fact does not exist.

While Ai was detained in China for 81 days in 2011, he was never formally charged with a crime. He described his arrest and detention as Beijing “applying its normal techniques of persecuting political opponents.”

“Just a bit of homework could have shown them that I was never formally charged, let alone convicted of a crime.”

Ai explained what he considered to be the real reason for the bank’s actions: “Not long ago the institution announced that it was accelerating its recruitment of employees in China. It wanted to triple their numbers in five years.”

The artist noted that the bank had already been fined US$77 million (NT$2.1 billion) by American regulators in 2018 for violations of the Foreign Corrupt Practices Act. The fines were for the bank hiring the offspring of wealthy Chinese communists to gain influence in the country.

The employment of so-called 'princelings' is rife amongst big companies as a way to gain favour with the CCP. If you want to understand the massive extent of corruption at the highest echelons of power and money in the world - this story is a great example.

WASHINGTON, Sept 16 (Reuters) - World Bank leaders, including then-Chief Executive Kristalina Georgieva, applied "undue pressure" on staff to boost China's ranking in the bank's "Doing Business 2018" report, according to an independent investigation released Thursday.

It said Georgieva, and a key adviser, Simeon Djankov, had pressured staff to "make specific changes to China's data points" and boost its ranking at a time when the bank was seeking China's support for a big capital increase.

Another example of globalism equaling totalitarianism.

You can't get much more powerful in this world than being head of the IMF - if you're using that power to falsify data and push the CCP's agenda, then that gives you an idea of the scale of corruption that exists.

It's time, sadly, to blow-up all these global institutions - start again.