From TPM Reader JS …

I have been sort of paying attention to this from the beginning. I think it’s important to separate the legitimate scientific question of how Covid emerged from the discourse of the “lab leak hypothesis.” I believe that the latter is some kind of shibboleth for people who want to feel vindicated that something they didn’t agree with from someone official about Covid, whether it was masks or the vaccine—they want have this sort of liquid position of not actually believing it but thinking that countervailing opinions aren’t being given enough oxygen. Maybe they were even ok with the vaccine but are worried that the decisions were too political? It’s weird.

From TPM Reader SM …

I’m a physician and clinical researcher. Viruses are not my specific area, but I have some interest in them and their origins.

I am a bit surprised to see you — and others in the mainstream press — talk about how we “still don’t know” the origins of COVID. While it may be true that we do not strictly know with 100% certainty, the burden of scientific evidence clearly points to a natural species-jumping event at the Wuhan market rather than a lab leak. This study here was published in one of the most world’s most elite journals, and is a sophisticated and thoughtful exploration of the issue. The first author, Michael Worobey, is the guy who did the major work to uncover the origins and early spread patterns of HIV. So he is The Man when it comes to this stuff. And his analysis clearly points to the market.

From TPM Reader KR …

The two studies, published last year in Science, are highly technical but Dr. Steve Novella  breaks down at Science Based Medicine.  Taken together they are a “body blow”, he says, to the lab leak hypothesis.

The first study used genetic analysis of the virus in the earliest cases to trace their origin and spread. You can use genetic analysis to trace spread as the virus mutates rapidly, splitting off into branching subtypes identifiable by genetic markers. This analysis finds that there were very likely two distinct spillover events, not just one, although they happened close together in space and time – in Wuhan in late November and early December 2019. The authors conclude:

Shortly after announcing he will sign a drag show banning bill Tennessee Gov. Bill Lee is confronted with a high school picture showing him dressed as a woman. A snippy Lee called the comparison “ridiculous.” (I’d say it’s a silly gotcha. But when you do silly and malicious things that’s totally okay.)

The Center for American Women and Politics at Rutgers has a study out today providing data on women in state legislatures in 2023. There are a number of interesting data sets and charts. But the one that got my attention is the list of top ten and bottom ten states by female representation in state legislatures. The states on the lists are about what you would expect. The top ten states are blue states and the bottom ten are thoroughly red. The only real exception is Arizona — number three on the top ten — which may be trending blue but can’t really be called a blue state yet. The bottom ten aren’t just red. They’re overwhelmingly in the South and Deep South — Mississippi, South Carolina, Alabama, Louisiana. The spread is also eye-popping. The most female representation was 60.3%. The lowest was West Virginia at 11.9%.

But what jumped out at me was the number one state in the top ten: Nevada.

Not surprisingly, the Supreme Court’s right-wing majority expressed great skepticism at the Biden White House’s debt-relief plan yesterday. What we should note, however, is how the press and opinion-setting conventional wisdom has reacted to that fact. Every reaction I’ve seen sees it as the White House failing, the White House getting its collective knuckles rapped, basically an attempt and a failure. The White House is in a lot of ways complicit in this state of affairs and that traces back to an abiding set of assumptions, ingrained almost beneath the level of conscious thought, that the Court is a legitimate rule-enforcing body which is owed respect and deference and shouldn’t be pulled into the political fray.

That’s a mistake.

Lots of headlines this evening that FBI Director Christopher Wray says the FBI also believes COVID originated in a leak from a Chinese lab. As I’ve said in other posts, I don’t think we know one way or another. Not knowing has been twisted in a lot of reports into the lab leak conclusion being an established fact. But set that question aside for a second. In the exclusive interview which Wray gave to Fox News he actually said something far more dramatic. He claims that it was an accidental leak of a virus designed to kill Americans.

Chatting with Fox Business’s Lou Dobbs, chief Republican investigator Rep. James Comer (R-KY) got so frustrated that Trump DOJ appointee David Weiss hasn’t indicted Hunter Biden yet that he went on a tangent venting that the President’s elder son Beau Biden hadn’t been indicted either, according to a report in The Daily Beast.

Every day we see more evidence that Donald Trump has jumped the shark — poor fundraising, deteriorating elite GOP support, mounting criminal legal peril and more. Meanwhile, Ron DeSantis, coming off a resounding reelection win, has all the malevolence and lib-owning of Trump and none of the baggage. The only remaining bright spot for Trump are the polls which continue to show him … well, to be the leader of the GOP and the odds-on favorite to be the 2024 GOP nominee. Yes, that’s what I’m saying. Don’t believe the hype: Trump is still the guy. And if you look at recent polls he seems to be becoming more the guy rather than less as we get further from the November election.

As a follow-up to the that ludicrous Times op-ed yesterday about an open primary for vice president, TPM Reader JS shares some thoughts …

I was never a Kamala partisan, I was for Loretta Sanchez in the primary (even after she came out dancing around at the state party convention, even after she lost the nomination there). There was just too much trying to bottle Obama’s lightning going on with how her ascent was handled in California politics and Loretta had my eternal thanks for ridding us of Bob Dornan. I thought Kamala was the inevitable and solid pick for VP. I agree that she’s less than ideal as a presidential candidate, that her performance was poor in the primary, and that performance was connected to her indelible traits as a leader.

But what all of these stupid articles miss, whether it’s NYT editorialists who’ve had too much box wine or a certain former-Slate podcaster or some other hot take, is that the perfect way to make her stronger is for her to, you know, actually be the President.