Follow The Data -- The Facts Are Out There

What are the facts? Again and again and again – what are the facts? Shun wishful thinking, ignore divine revelation, forget what “the stars foretell,” avoid opinion, care not what the neighbors think, never mind the unguessable “verdict of history” – what are the facts, and to how many decimal places? You pilot always into an unknown future; facts are your single clue. Get the facts!

Robert A. Heinlein

The foundation of any reasoned argument, the basis of all rational debate must be facts and evidence. Whether the topic is "collusion" between Donald Trump's 2016 Presidential campaign staff and elements of the Russian government, the legal case (or lack thereof) against Lieutenant General Michael Flynn, or  the origin of the CCPVirus, reasoned discourse begins and ends with the facts, with what we can prove is so.

Thankfully, the real world abounds with facts.

The Historical Record

Consider the factual references I have used for previous articles and pieces of research.

From The Great Russian Hacking Hoax (May 11, 2017):

• We had the Intelligence Community Assessment from January, 2017.
• We had James Clapper's public statement that he had "no evidence" of collusion.
• We had former Acting CIA Director Mike Morell stating substantially the same thing.
• We had Senator Dianne Feinstein's concession on CNN that she had not seen any evidence of collusion.
• We had Crowdstrike's forensic analysis of the DNC Server "hack" from 2016.
• We had Crowdstrike's erroneous assessment of Russian hacking of Ukrainian field artillery to challenge the quality of Crowdstrike's forensic work.
• We had then FBI Director James Comey's testimony before Congress that the DNC denied the FBI access to their servers after the hack.

From "Trump-Russia: Are There ANY Facts Out There?" (July 17, 2018):

• We had Facebook's statement that Russian state actors had purchased some $100,000 worth of Facebook ads to influence the 2016 election.
• We had Facebook's inventory of the ads purchased, revealing a more muddled, less clearly partisan influence campaign--if it was even that.
• We had the revelation that Robert Mueller had indicted a Russian company for crimes committed before the company even existed.
• We had reporting indicating that Mueller's team never bothered to translate much of the evidence supporting the indictments from their original Russian.
• We had reporting showing that Mueller's second round of indictments relied on hearsay testimony.
• We had reporting also indicating that Mueller's second round of indictments may have "borrowed" language and evidences from other cases.

From "With Flynn, Mueller Has Exchanged Prosecution For Persecution" (December 16, 2018):

• We had reporting that FBI Peter Strzok did not believe General Flynn had lied to the FBI.
• We had reporting of James Comey's testimony to the House Intel committee that the FBI agents who interviewed General Flynn did not observe any "physical indications of deception".
• We had reporting of Robert Mueller's reluctance to have General Flynn sentenced.
• We had reporting on Peter Strzok's "missing" Form 302 interview notes from when he interviewed General Flynn.
• We had reporting on Mueller's threat to indict General Flynn's son if Flynn did not plead guilty.

From "Tencent Proves Legacy Media 'Journalism' Not Worth A Dime" (February 6, 2020):

• We had reporting on anomalies in how China tallied deaths from CCPVirus.
• We had reporting that the mortality rate in China for CCPVirus exceeded SARS.
• We had reporting of a whistleblower nurse in China claiming that China had far more cases of CCPVirus than it had admitted.
• We had reporting that India was investigating the origins of the virus, and Dr. Francis Boyle's assertion (albeit with no hard evidence presented) the virus was a bioweapon.

From "COVID19 Outside China Shows Value Of Early Response" (February 13, 2020):

• We had China's revising of diagnostic criteria to downplay the severity of the pandemic.
• We had China's subsequent upward revisions of case counts in and around Hubei province.
• We had reports of potential carriers from China which had not at the time translated into confirmed cases of disease.
• We had the lack of cases (at the time) in South Africa and Indonesia.
• We had the timeline to that point of the CCPVirus outbreak.

Latest Revelations

With the historical record thus established, consider now recent information that has surfaced regarding these topics.

On Russian Collusion:

• On March 22, 2019, Robert Mueller wrapped up his investigation into Russian "collusion" without having secured a single indictment against Donald Trump or any of his inner circle of advisors.
• On April 18, 2019, the official report of Mueller's investigation was released, wherein he stated that no evidence of "collusion" between the Trump Campaign and members of the Russian government had been found.

On the case against Lieutenant General Flynn:

• On May 7, the Department of Justice filed a motion to dismiss the case against General Flynn with prejudice.
• Earlier in the week, court documents surfaced showing the FBI's interview of Flynn was a calculated effort to get him fired.
• Those same documents established the FBI knew at the time of Flynn's interview General Flynn had not committed any crime.

On China's coverup of the origin of the CCPVirus and weaponizing of the pandemic:

• On February 16, a transcript of a speech China's President Xi Jinping gave to Chinese Communist Party officials where he stated he had been fully briefed on the CCPVirus situation in early January, contradicting many of China's own official statements on this topic.
• On February 17, there was the revelation that China had barred researchers from publicly discussing the virus.
• On March 26, there was reporting that China had attempted to strip western nations of vital medical supplies during the early days of the pandemic.
• On April 12, there was reporting that China was deleting all online discussion on the origin of the CCPVirus that it could.
• On April 15, internal CCP documents were leaked showing that China's leaders knew about person-to-person transmission of the virus for many days before acknowleding this to the WHO.
• On April 20, there was reporting the US Embassy in Beijing had concerns about lab safety at China's virology labs back in 2018.
• On May 1, the WHO stated China was refusing to cooperate with an international investigation into the origin of the CCPVirus.

I will risk charges of arrogance and ego to point out that the facts which have emerged subsequent to many of my earlier commentaries have substantiated virtually all of my conclusions and assertions. Current events have proven my read of the historical record to be right on more than one occasion.

There Are No "Bombshells", Merely Validations

My point in this is not to tout any prescience or gift of insight on my part. The case I am making is that on each of these particular topics, there has always been data to evaluate, and facts to consider. To the extent current events have validated my earlier assertions, it is because I have been willing to look at the facts, and to question them. 

Most importantly, we should realize there are no "bombshell" revelations, merely a continuum of facts that will in time either support or reject a particular logical conclusion.

I claim no particular genius, and I certainly have no crystal ball. Every source I cite is information that is in the public record, and freely accessible online. Every citation is a link to the source material (or, more recently, an archive of that material, in order to ensure the integrity of documentation, as some sources revise their materials substantially over time).

What I do, anyone can do. What I read, anyone can read. What I question, everyone should question.

I invite anyone who reads my work to review the source materials for themselves. I invite anyone so inclined to "fact check" my work, and to call me out if they conclude I have mis-stated anything, or if my conclusions are not supported by the facts. If anyone has other materials which will refute my arguments, I am always eager to hear what they have to say.

For any society to prosper and to advance, its citizens must engage in informed discussions of the topics of the day. We must not merely ponder these things, but we must share our thoughts, and be willing to be challenged by the thoughts of others. We do ourselves a disservice if we merely accept without question the assertions of "experts" or of government officials. We are supposed to question, and we should always challenge. That is how we learn. That is how we uncover Truth.

Truth is derived from the actual facts of a matter, not from who is presenting them.

Do not merely listen to "experts". Challenge them. Question them. Look at the facts for yourself, and form your own conclusions. Never be afraid to ask that all important question "does this make sense?"--and never be afraid to pursue further inquiry when the answer to that question comes back "no".

Always follow the data. If there is one certainty we have, it is that the facts are out there, waiting to be uncovered.