Political Thoughts with Richard Bleil
As of the writing of this blog (about a week ago if it posts as scheduled), the big news is a report issued by the Department of Energy in their investigation of the origins of the Coronavirus. Okay, seriously? The Department of Energy? Can anybody explain to me why the Department of Energy is related to Coronavirus at all? How many of these investigations are the taxpayers funding?
Okay, department aside, the report concluded “with low confidence” that the virus was due to an accidental release from the Wuhan lab. To be assessed as “low confidence” means that the source of information on which the report is made is of low reliability or too fragmented to have higher confidence. Ultimately it means that the findings are the best they could make but are unreliable, and it does go against other investigative reports.
Of course, the Republicans and conservatives are jumping on the report. Once Republican senator called this low confidence finding “definitive proof” that China was to blame. If only they could accept the scientific communities’ findings on global warming with such confidence. Others are lashing out at Democrats and liberals, claiming that the Trumpeters were right all along despite democratic and liberal cover-ups and defenses of China. The reality is that the Republicans are wrong, even if definitive proof comes up that the Wuhan lab is responsible simply because they drew their conclusions too quickly and based on little or no information whatsoever.
And, once again, the Republicans are clamoring for action to be taken against China for the outrage of biological testing just like the United States is doing. The United States has a long and proud history of criticizing and punishing other nations for doing the exact same thing that we do. In this most recent report, even with “low confidence,” the conclusion was that such a release was accidental. We’re not talking about an intentional release, a release to test effectiveness or a biological attack, and yet Republicans are screaming for punishment despite the fact that the same accident could have happened at any one of the US biological laboratories.
The one thing that we did learn is that the same group of people screaming to punish China for the Coronavirus are the same people who demonstrated just how poorly the US would respond had this been an actual biological weapon attack. The number of dead from the virus are far more Republican than not as the conservatives refused to defend against the spread of the virus with the simple act of wearing masks, and now refuse immunization shots, and all because of their own paranoia. It’s the Trumpeters killing themselves by ingesting chemicals that are untested in effectiveness because their president is telling them to do so despite damage they cause the heart.
Had the virus been an actual biological attack, the conservatives would have been a superb ally of the terrorists in spreading misinformation and refusing to help protect America. Masks have never been a significant device against actually getting the virus, but rather a tool to help prevent its spread, and yet instead of protecting the health of Americans, Republicans chose to protect the rights of those Americans who survive the virus. In an attack on America, historically people pulled together to defend the nation, and yet while they clamored to declare the Coronavirus such an attack, conservatives opted to divide the nation and refuse even the simplest actions to defend against it.
So let the screaming and finger pointing that has become our political system commence over this unreliable conclusion. Let’s scream for actions against China for doing exactly the same thing that we are doing instead of considering if it’s really necessary for anybody to be doing viral research for biological weapons. Let’s scream about cover-ups instead of examining our own very poor and dangerous denial and response that allowed the virus take the lives of over a million Americans because of our own failures as a nation. And while we’re at it, lets make sure that every hostile nation in the world know how vulnerable we are should they want to attack us with a biological weapon because we’re more interested in protecting our rights, and so easily fall for misinformation and lies.
There are many lessons to be learned from Covid-19, but we’re not looking at the correct ones. It’s an opportunity to look into our own weaknesses and failings, but, of course, too many will argue that we have none or that it’s the other party’s fault. We’re the greatest nation on earth. Woo fucking hoo.
Bleil's Banter 