[teejers1]

I didn't write the first post because I believe the virus escaped from the Chinese lab. It may have, but the evidence is entirely conjectural - always will be.

I wrote it because the warning was actually about inadequate safeguards, training, etc. The implication I got was that we are dealing with a Chinese Chernobyl in prospect, anyway. Chernobyl is the paradigm example of what can go wrong when a sophisticated and very dangerous technology is placed in the hands of a Third World culture, which is what the Soviet Union had become in effect by 1983.

I suppose the Post ran the story because - faced with these cables - Trump should have done . . . should have done . . . . what, exactly? My mind was made up about Trump back in 2016, with disgraceful tweets about a second generation Hispanic judge, former prosecutor, and staunch conservative - undiluted nativism with a soupcon of racism. Since then, however, I have seen the Democratic Party devolve into an incoherent, frothing, hysterical mass of an anti-personality cult. Trump didn't win the 2016 election because of Russian collusion, or a sudden resurgence of White nationalism (in decline for 60 years now, and STILL declining, as it did during the Obama years. There are in fact not enough White Nationalists in the whole country to elect anyone to the school board in a medium size city.) It lost because its obsession with identity politics, coupled with a candidate almost as unattractive as Trump, destroyed the Big Tent of FDR. It's a shame that Biden didn't run in 2016. He'd be President now.

The leak the Post cites doesn't actually touch Trump all that much, particularly since the newspaper seems to have forgotten the claims of xenophobia made in reaction to what Trump did do, both from its own editors and Democratic personages, who now wish they'd shut up. Just what was supposed to happen two years ago is somewhat mystifying. 

But it says a great deal about the risks foreign nations run in doing business with China - or, to be accurate, the CCP. Not only do you have the inadequate training, but no assurance the that the nations of the world are going to get any sort of reasonable cooperation when - not if - Hell breaks loose again.  (BTW, I am using China as shorthand for CCP, not individual Chinese or the Chinese culture. As I wrote before, I know half a dozen or so Chinese nationals. To a man and woman, they loathe the government. We should join them.)

Agree on so many fronts. Even I would have voted for Biden over Trump. That said, Biden wouldn't be President at this point. Sadly, his VP would be. Biden is a shell of what he was even four years ago. . . .

I think the Dems should find somebody else.  Seriously.  Anyone who projects as competent and measured and serious will win going away.  With Joe Biden, I'm concerned there will be a "competency/dementia" concern with Joe Voter.

Almost any of the folks who bailed could win (not yet sure about Bernie, but this time would be his best bet).  Just my gut take.

[teejers1]

I didn't write the first post because I believe the virus escaped from the Chinese lab. It may have, but the evidence is entirely conjectural - always will be.

I wrote it because the warning was actually about inadequate safeguards, training, etc. The implication I got was that we are dealing with a Chinese Chernobyl in prospect, anyway. Chernobyl is the paradigm example of what can go wrong when a sophisticated and very dangerous technology is placed in the hands of a Third World culture, which is what the Soviet Union had become in effect by 1983.

I suppose the Post ran the story because - faced with these cables - Trump should have done . . . should have done . . . . what, exactly? My mind was made up about Trump back in 2016, with disgraceful tweets about a second generation Hispanic judge, former prosecutor, and staunch conservative - undiluted nativism with a soupcon of racism. Since then, however, I have seen the Democratic Party devolve into an incoherent, frothing, hysterical mass of an anti-personality cult. Trump didn't win the 2016 election because of Russian collusion, or a sudden resurgence of White nationalism (in decline for 60 years now, and STILL declining, as it did during the Obama years. There are in fact not enough White Nationalists in the whole country to elect anyone to the school board in a medium size city.) It lost because its obsession with identity politics, coupled with a candidate almost as unattractive as Trump, destroyed the Big Tent of FDR. It's a shame that Biden didn't run in 2016. He'd be President now.

The leak the Post cites doesn't actually touch Trump all that much, particularly since the newspaper seems to have forgotten the claims of xenophobia made in reaction to what Trump did do, both from its own editors and Democratic personages, who now wish they'd shut up. Just what was supposed to happen two years ago is somewhat mystifying. 

But it says a great deal about the risks foreign nations run in doing business with China - or, to be accurate, the CCP. Not only do you have the inadequate training, but no assurance the that the nations of the world are going to get any sort of reasonable cooperation when - not if - Hell breaks loose again.  (BTW, I am using China as shorthand for CCP, not individual Chinese or the Chinese culture. As I wrote before, I know half a dozen or so Chinese nationals. To a man and woman, they loathe the government. We should join them.)

Agree on so many fronts. Even I would have voted for Biden over Trump. That said, Biden wouldn't be President at this point. Sadly, his VP would be. Biden is a shell of what he was even four years ago. . . .

I think the Dems should find somebody else.  Seriously.  Anyone who projects as competent and measured and serious will win going away.  With Joe Biden, I'm concerned there will be a "competency/dementia" concern with Joe Voter.

Almost any of the folks who bailed could win (not yet sure about Bernie, but this time would be his best bet).  Just my gut take.