08-03-2021, 01:45 AM
COVID-19 is much too dangerous for the Chinese leadership to mess with. As in Iran, it could decimate political elites -- which means the Communist Party of China -- as well as critical scientists, engineers, and businessmen. Yes, Ji Xinping may be more reckless than other recent Chinese leadership... but not that reckless.
Nobody could have reasonably expected how badly the USA could have mangled a response to COVID-19. You. Xenakis, know what I think of Donald Trump, but his handling of COVID-19 is criminal, homicidal negligence on a scale rare in world history. Yes, I believe that former President Trump has committed indictable offenses involving COVID-19 alone.
China seems to have done far better than most countries in meeting the menace of COVID-19... including the United States, in part because China does not have the large number of Christian Protestant fundamentalists who disparage rational science when it in any way contradicts their beliefs. Contrast the devout Catholic Joe Biden who has no problem deferring to the wisest science of the time -- then again, the Catholic Church prefers concessions to science rather than create a rationale for rebellion or schism among smart kids who have been the basis of most heresies and schisms in history. (Here's a swipe at Donald Trump for his religiosity: he is nothing more than a "Santa Claus and Easter Bunny" Christian, someone who has no obvious source for any moral compass. Trump has no moral compass, so he can't be accused of hypocrisy. As for hypocrisy -- two sorts of people can fully evade it: genuine saints who are truly good, and people proud of their own wickedness. Regrettably the world has far more people like Nazi war criminal (and extreme sex pervert) Oskar Dirlewanger who led a penal brigade that did what one would expect it to do than like Saint Francis of Assisi. Most of us have some ideals, and about everyone falls short. I greet my fellow hypocrites with the recognition that I am one, too.
The death toll from COVID-19 in America alone is much like that of a shooting war that goes badly because the Leadership trivializes the loss of "cannon fodder" and has no willingness to change anything to get better results.
To defeat the United States in a military conflict one must apply a combination of ruthlessness, cleverness, and brute force that rarely exists in adequate amounts in any leader. Hitler and Tojo showed how inadequate their countries were in knocking out the USA as a menace to their diabolical plans for conquest and enslavement.
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Nobody could have reasonably expected how badly the USA could have mangled a response to COVID-19. You. Xenakis, know what I think of Donald Trump, but his handling of COVID-19 is criminal, homicidal negligence on a scale rare in world history. Yes, I believe that former President Trump has committed indictable offenses involving COVID-19 alone.
China seems to have done far better than most countries in meeting the menace of COVID-19... including the United States, in part because China does not have the large number of Christian Protestant fundamentalists who disparage rational science when it in any way contradicts their beliefs. Contrast the devout Catholic Joe Biden who has no problem deferring to the wisest science of the time -- then again, the Catholic Church prefers concessions to science rather than create a rationale for rebellion or schism among smart kids who have been the basis of most heresies and schisms in history. (Here's a swipe at Donald Trump for his religiosity: he is nothing more than a "Santa Claus and Easter Bunny" Christian, someone who has no obvious source for any moral compass. Trump has no moral compass, so he can't be accused of hypocrisy. As for hypocrisy -- two sorts of people can fully evade it: genuine saints who are truly good, and people proud of their own wickedness. Regrettably the world has far more people like Nazi war criminal (and extreme sex pervert) Oskar Dirlewanger who led a penal brigade that did what one would expect it to do than like Saint Francis of Assisi. Most of us have some ideals, and about everyone falls short. I greet my fellow hypocrites with the recognition that I am one, too.
The death toll from COVID-19 in America alone is much like that of a shooting war that goes badly because the Leadership trivializes the loss of "cannon fodder" and has no willingness to change anything to get better results.
To defeat the United States in a military conflict one must apply a combination of ruthlessness, cleverness, and brute force that rarely exists in adequate amounts in any leader. Hitler and Tojo showed how inadequate their countries were in knocking out the USA as a menace to their diabolical plans for conquest and enslavement.
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The ideal subject of totalitarian rule is not the convinced Nazi or the dedicated Communist but instead the people for whom the distinction between fact and fiction, true and false, no longer exists -- Hannah Arendt.
