The US media were quick to draw a link with the old boogeyman Russia, saying it confirms Moscow's maliciousness. The implication is that US diplomats and intelligence officers were attacked with a sophisticated weapon that the US could not detect.

"The mere consideration of such a scenario raises grave concerns about a world with disinhibited malevolent actors and new tools for causing harm to others, as if the US government does not have its hands full already with naturally occurring threats."

Russia had already been widely described by the US media as a likely culprit behind the American officials' health problems. The country is mentioned in the study only briefly, in the context of past research into the effects of pulsed microwave exposure. It showed no proof that the supposed victims of the hypothetical attack were actually subjected to microwave radiation, yet alone that it was intentional.

But outlets covering it didn't hesitate to draw an explicit connection. NBC News and the New York Times were the first to report on the release of the research on Friday, having had access to it prior to publication. The study itself was finished months ago and was previewed in a story printed by GQ in October, to which both media outlets refer.

National Academies of Sciences sent it to the State Department in August, and for months US lawmakers "pressed the department to publicly disclose the findings, saying its failure to release the information fit with a pattern of secrecy and inaction by the Trump administration," according to NYT.

The reportage fits a pattern of stories which paint Russia as a power hostile to the US and willing to launch clandestine attacks against it, while President Trump sits on his hands reluctant to push back. Such stories also tend to suffer from a shortage of actual evidence.

One could see how pushing stories about a Russian menace is in the interest of the US' national security apparatus. The coverage of the 'microwave weapon' study may seem a particularly blatant case, however, considering the identity of one of the reporters given a preview, something many commenters pointed out.

• 'Microwave attack' may have caused mystery illnesses of US diplomats in Cuba and China
• Pure Sci Fi: Professor discounts claims of 'microwave attacks' on US diplomats in Cuba
• Anonymous US officials continue spreading propaganda, now say Russia behind 'attacks' on US diplomats in Cuba & China
• Shocker! NYT journalist swims against the tide, objectively investigates mysterious illnesses affecting US diplomats in Cuba
• Medical report: US and Canadian diplomats in Cuba diagnosed with brain injuries, nerve damage

Here is Edward Solomon explaining his reverse engineering to determine the Dominion algorithm used in GA. He concludes it gave Biden over 200,000 votes, the majority from Fulton County, plus a handful of precincts in other counties. He builds on the transfer of ratios he first observed in PA. He found the same phenomenon in most precincts in Fulton County and in some precincts in a handful of other counties. He explains in this video how he reverse engineered from there, deriving an intricate fractal pattern diagramed as vectors on a wheel, representing the roots and branches of the ratios used. He also explains that this pattern of these ratios cannot be random or coincidental- they are designed to produce a certain percentage of votes for Trump, sufficiently low to give Biden the win. The ratios are applied only for discreet periods of time, shifting over time to other precincts. He describes the precincts during periods for which ratios are applied as being "virtual precincts" meaning the algorithm has taken over vote counting temporarily. This is hard to follow, but he's convinced he's found the smoking gun.

Two issues I think need to be addressed, the first of which Solomon mentions in passing, is how use of the algorithm squares with ballot stuffing that apparently went on in Fulton County, and why wouldn't the recount expose the 200,000 plus votes shifted to Biden?