Full Text of US State Department Cables Finally Released, Showing Safety In Chinese Lab (cnn.com) 220
Slashdot reader destinyland writes: On April 7th, a Trump campaign advisor told the Los Angeles Times "One way we still win this election is by turning it into a referendum on China." Within weeks the Washington Post noted "reports that the Trump administration has sought to pressure U.S. intelligence agencies to search for proof of a link between the Wuhan lab and the covid-19 outbreak." And that same month selected portions of two diplomatic cables from 2018 were leaked to the Washington Post, and published in a controversial "opinion piece."
The Post requested "expedited processing" for the release of the complete text of both cables — a routine request which was nevertheless denied. (Though a virologist at Columbia University shared a rebuttal in memes.) The complete text of the cables has now been released — and the additional information undercuts the story line that the lab — which was located a full nine miles from the market at the center of the outbreak — was anything less than safe. Though the Post's opinion piece had highlighted a clause about "a serious shortage of appropriately trained technicians and investigators needed to safely operate this high-containment laboratory" — the diplomats had actually been concerned instead that the shortage would interfere with the lab's productivity and utilization — and not it's safety.
And there was apparently more information in the cable which was withheld. CNN reports:
The January 2018 cable, obtained by the Washington Post after a Freedom of Information Act lawsuit, noted that ties between the WIV and the University of Texas Medical Branch at Galveston could help alleviate the shortage and that, reportedly, the US-based institution was training technicians to work at the Wuhan Institute of Virology (WIV). A second cable about the WIV from April 2018 cited a French official who said that "French experts have provided guidance and biosafety training to the lab, which will continue...."
Back in April a senior policy fellow at the Center for Global Development surmised the misleading excerpts from the cables had come from "an administration official with an obvious axe to grind." And this weekend the Columbia University virologist reacted to what the cable's full text revealed about the high safety standards at the Wuhan Institute of Virology:
"This cable says NOTHING about concerns with the work that was being done at WIV. The supposedly worrisome work was actually presented as a success story in a lab that was coming online more slowly than everyone — including the US authors of the cable — expected or hoped."
The Post requested "expedited processing" for the release of the complete text of both cables — a routine request which was nevertheless denied. (Though a virologist at Columbia University shared a rebuttal in memes.) The complete text of the cables has now been released — and the additional information undercuts the story line that the lab — which was located a full nine miles from the market at the center of the outbreak — was anything less than safe. Though the Post's opinion piece had highlighted a clause about "a serious shortage of appropriately trained technicians and investigators needed to safely operate this high-containment laboratory" — the diplomats had actually been concerned instead that the shortage would interfere with the lab's productivity and utilization — and not it's safety.
And there was apparently more information in the cable which was withheld. CNN reports:
The January 2018 cable, obtained by the Washington Post after a Freedom of Information Act lawsuit, noted that ties between the WIV and the University of Texas Medical Branch at Galveston could help alleviate the shortage and that, reportedly, the US-based institution was training technicians to work at the Wuhan Institute of Virology (WIV). A second cable about the WIV from April 2018 cited a French official who said that "French experts have provided guidance and biosafety training to the lab, which will continue...."
Back in April a senior policy fellow at the Center for Global Development surmised the misleading excerpts from the cables had come from "an administration official with an obvious axe to grind." And this weekend the Columbia University virologist reacted to what the cable's full text revealed about the high safety standards at the Wuhan Institute of Virology:
"This cable says NOTHING about concerns with the work that was being done at WIV. The supposedly worrisome work was actually presented as a success story in a lab that was coming online more slowly than everyone — including the US authors of the cable — expected or hoped."
How does this change anything? (Score:5, Insightful)
Let's assume that it's China's fault. This keeps people from dying in the US in what way exactly?
Could we try to solve the problem first and find someone to blame later?
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Re:How does this change anything? (Score:5, Funny)
Let's assume that it's China's fault. This keeps people from dying in the US in what way exactly?
Could we try to solve the problem first and find someone to blame later?
Trump is perfectly capable of doing two things at...OK I concede the point.
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Errr....he promised the virus would magically disappear by now...several times. It hasn't.
He's successfully told over 20,000 falsehoods since becoming the alleged president. He promised to bring back coal jobs, he hasn't...don't hear much about them coal jobs from him now that he captured the coal votes. His alleged EPA chief has weakened environmental standards in a bid to bring back coal jobs. He and his alleged president somehow thought that would work in contradistinction to the evidence showing natural
Re:How does this change anything? (Score:5, Informative)
alleged president
To nitpick. He's not an alleged president. He is president. That is a thing that somehow actually happened. The open question is if he is presidential, and that even given his position is very hard to allege.
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alleged president
To nitpick. He's not an alleged president. He is president. That is a thing that somehow actually happened. The open question is if he is presidential, and that even given his position is very hard to allege.
Indeed We need to distinguish between being president (he is) and being presidential (matter of opinion) or being a responsible president (I have my doubts).
Re:How does this change anything? (Score:4, Interesting)
If you really want to cover your backside and call everything "alleged" until proven definitively, then you also shouldn't assume that the election wasn't rigged. So if that's your standard, then one could argue that he is an alleged president as well, or at least an allegedly elected president. (Note that I'm not saying that I think such rigging is likely, but you'd have to be kind of nuts to not admit that it is at least theoretically possible.)
We actually have quite a lot of evidence of Russian attempts to influence the 2016 election plus, of course, Comey's October Surprise (which he did only because he was certain that Clinton was going to win and didn't want to be seen as having withheld information and thereby unduly influenced the election in her favor). Did either of those things, or the two in combination, change the outcome? We'll never know, but it's well beyond "theoretically possible", and even beyond "plausible". I'd say "likely". Does election-changing influence constitute "rigging"? Dunno, that's a matter of definitions.
In any case, even if the election was outright rigged through, say, arbitrary modification of vote counts or similar, Trump is president. Even if we discovered clear proof of rigging today, there's no constitutional process in place to change the election outcome. At most, if we discovered that Trump personally rigged the election the only thing that we could do is impeach him (again) in the House and try him (again) in the Senate. Whether or not the outcome would be any different would be up to the GOP Senators. They didn't care to hear evidence last time, so there's no guarantee they would in this hypothetical next time.
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You fail civics 101 - the president isn't appointed by a popular vote but by electoral vote. Those votes were counted and are easily verified.
You fail civics 101. The electors are chosen by a popular vote. If the electors were fraudulently chosen, then their votes are not valid.
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With extreme irony considering that Trumps been saying it's soooo easy to rig elections with fake votes
Don't forget that he was also so sure he would lose that he had been playing up the idea that the election might be rigged against him, didn't have a transition team set up, and didn't even have a victory speech written up.
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He actually did have a transition team set up. But then he fired or demoted most of them shortly after the election. After all, he didn't need their support in the election any more.
Re:How does this change anything? (Score:5, Insightful)
One of the few presidents who actually keep their promises.
Lock her up.
Build the wall.
Negotiate amazing trade deals.
Drain the swamp.
The virus will just disappear.
The only promise Trump will keep is to make America great again. The moment he leaves office.
Re:How does this change anything? (Score:5, Informative)
Hillary is still in court (and loosing).
Nothing will come from it. The Barr DOJ is tainted. She won't see a day in prison. (for that matter, never will Trump unless he does something clearly illegal after leaving office-no president wants to set the precedent of imprisoning another president for actions committed while in office)
Wall is being built despite commie pushback.
Wall is being repaired. There has been almost no new construction done, only repairs to existing structures which Trump keeps touting as the wall being built (and always exaggerates how much has been repaired). Also, still waiting on that check from Mexico.
Trade deals... yeah he did that, and I am seeing more manufacturing in my area.
And farmers are getting killed on exports to places like China. Auto plants are still getting shut down. Hell, they even wasted a good chance to bootstrap American manufacturing by using DPA to get companies to start making PPE for the whole covid mess.
Swap hard to drain... but I'll give you that one.
He didn't just not drain it, he made it deeper. So many of his appointees have been caught wasting money, promoting businesses they are tied to, using official resources for private uses, hiding meetings with corporations and lobbyists, and even using government funds to help build a budding political career (I'm looking at you Pompeo and your "Madison Dinners").
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Wall is being repaired. There has been almost no new construction done, only repairs to existing structures which Trump keeps touting as the wall being built (and always exaggerates how much has been repaired). Also, still waiting on that check from Mexico.
I was in Lukeville, Arizona last week... there is very much construction going on, if by "wall" they meant "a fence made of the same vertical metal slats as has existed along the border in many cities for years". The previous fence in that location had three strands of barb wire.
I guess, in my mind, I have always pictured a massive wall of solid concrete and stone when Trump brings up the subject...in either case, something is being newly constructed.
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Re:How does this change anything? (Score:4, Informative)
Hillary is still in court (and loosing).
Ignoring the spelling error, this is only vaguely true. Clinton isn't in court because she's being prosecuted for anything. Her attorneys are involved in a legal process related to a Freedom Of Information Act request by a conservative watchdog group called "Judicial Watch". It's actually pretty bizarre that Judicial Watch has pulled Clinton into the process at all, since their actual target is the State Department.
Most recently, they're bizarrely alleging that Trump's state department is covering up evidence of Hillary Clinton's misconduct by withholding records that they should provide pursuant to the FOIA request. The judge has pointed out how ludicrous it is to argue that Trump's administration would be protecting Clinton.
If we suppose, hypothetically, that Trump is protecting Clinton, of course, that would indicate not just a failure to keep his "Lock her up" promise, but active avoidance of keeping that promise. If I momentarily channel one of those idiot Pizzagate conspiracy theorists: "Hmm... Trump is protecting Clinton... she must have dirt on him, dirt bad enough to take down even a man whose supporters have proven they wouldn't care if he shot someone in the middle of fifth avenue... the only thing that could be that bad is child sex trafficking. AHA! Trump must be an active participant in Pizzagate!".
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Well, don't forget that Hillary had a literal front row seat to Trump's wedding to Melania in 2005 (Bill showed up late). So obviously their relationship was better than it seemed to be.
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Re:How does this change anything? (Score:5, Informative)
There are many reasons for withholding requests...
So you agree that Trump is stonewalling on his promise to lock her up?
The fact is though that she is under active investigation.
No, she is not under investigation. That would imply that there are investigators from some government agency investigating. That's not what's happening. A private group has filed an FOIA request and is insisting -- without any evidence -- that there must be more that they haven't gotten. The government is trying to get them to go away. The judge is basically rolling her eyes at them.
Her current job is a joke also.... dean of a university in Ireland how much bigger of a joke can you be.
Well, you could be a big enough joke to pay attention to what her job is. I couldn't even be bothered to Google your claim to fact check it. Hillary Clinton is no longer relevant and will never again be relevant. IMO, that's a good thing, I never did like the woman. Or her husband.
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Actually, numerous studies show that all U.S. presidents so far have tried to live up to their election platform and set things in motion to fulfill their promises. Sometimes they fail for many reasons: unwilling legislative, events breaking that change priorities, constraints not known when the promises were made, unclear goals that have to redefined, or compromises to get other things done also promised. But all of the U.S. presidents at least tried to stay true to their word
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But all of the U.S. presidents at least tried to stay true to their word.
Or at least to look like it. When they don't take available avenues to keep their word because they would be politically inconvenient, which is often the case, they shouldn't get to claim that they really tried.
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I kind of agree, but only because we need different regulation, not additional regulation.
Notably, we should write the private insurance companies right out of the program. Medicare expansion would make a whole hell of a lot more sense than this Romneycare bullshit.
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Indeed. However, given the fact that healthcare makes up nearly 20% of the US GDP, it's WAY too attractive of a target for "big government" types to leave alone. They want their "fair share" of that revenue stream so it can be doled out as political patronage. What better way to ensure the collection of their cut than to inject the government into almost every aspect of the industry and MANDATE that everyone consumes the resultant bloated services.
When they are done with that, they'll go after another at
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Care to elaborate?
Not doubting the existence of those solutions, just haven't heard of any, so I'm doubting the "obvious" part.
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You as an U.S. president would also do things much better, because you never actually had to.
Just doing something would get better results than the current administration which has decided to basically do nothing.
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It's a national tragedy.
Well, less so that he's the idiot that he is. The real tragedy is that he was elected and that even after 4 years of seeing what's going on, we still have people defending him and maybe even reelecting him.
It gets harder and harder to defend the political system as it is, ya know...
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That statement actually applies far more aptly to Joe Biden.
I don't really know anything about Joe Biden. I doubt he's had much impact on the world either way.
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His legacy is generally just being one of the most preposterously terrible people you can imagine.
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Better the geriatric you know than the one you don't, or what's the argument?
Re:How does this change anything? (Score:4, Insightful)
Let's assume that it's China's fault. This keeps people from dying in the US in what way exactly?
Could we try to solve the problem first and find someone to blame later?
You got the priorities wrong. By assuming it is China's fault, this keeps people voting for Trump.
In America, getting re-elected is more important than anyone's life.
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Was not it 15 two weeks ago? Burned all those stores for nothing...
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Depends which poll you look at, average is any 9 points.
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I think people underestimate how fed up people in "flyover territory" are with business as usual in Washington.
One hopes that the residents of flyover states are capable of seeing through the bullshit, and finding out that Trump is part of business as usual. Fuck the little guy over in order to funnel money to the already rich, that's 99.99% of what Trump has done so far. Sounds like business as usual to me, even if Trump is more mediapathic than usual.
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I see. So the record low unemployment (before COVID), which included the lowest unemployment rates since measurements began for black and latino segments of the population, must have been a mirage. People exiting public assistance programs and going to work...that must have been a mirage too. Even the Washington Post had to admit late last year that people of color comprised the majority of new hires for the first time in recorded US history. Small wonder the media is hyperventilating trying to get the
Re: How does this change anything? (Score:3)
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I see. So the record low unemployment (before COVID), which included the lowest unemployment rates since measurements began for black and latino segments of the population, must have been a mirage
It's not a mirage, it's fraud. The unemployment rate deliberately leaves some unemployed people uncounted, and also doesn't account for underemployed people who are working but still not making enough to live on.
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Those same polls showed Hillary as a shoo-in last time. I think people underestimate how fed up people in "flyover territory" are with business as usual in Washington.
Tulsa is pretty much the definition of flyover territory, and we saw how they feel about Trump and how much trust they have in his handling of covid right now.
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Let's assume that it's China's fault. This keeps people from dying in the US in what way exactly?
Could we try to solve the problem first and find someone to blame later?
Are you kidding? There's an election coming up!
Re:How does this change anything? (Score:4, Interesting)
You think you have a Federal Administration who is trying to lead the country out of a problem? If so you have been drinking too much of its kool-aid.
The Trump Administration is out for only itself. Trying to win the next election by the same tactics it one the last one, by dividing people. It is hard to divide people when there isn't a boogyman to blame.
Leadership is currently happening on the State and Local level. Where the politicians are actually making the tough decision to enforce masking, close businesses, etc... These are not things that a Liberal or Conservative politician wants to do (despite what the cable news commentary says) because to the politician it is really distracting them from pushing the agenda they want to push, but now they have to make sure the population is safe, while trying to balance the economy and public opinion.
For cases like this, we need the push towards a unified effort to solve the problem, but the Trump Administration is just trying to divide us more. Ignoring the experts, and being a general force to support the local governments efforts, to help fix the big problem.
This is why there is huge difference from State to State, in infection rates, deaths, and state in the recovery. Because leadership in each state with different ability is trying to manage the problems themselves. With mixed success. The effect on leadership isn't partisan, You can have good leaders in any party and bad leaders. Covid-19 doesn't seem to care about your political stance.
This is the top 10 states by numbers of total infections
New York - Blue
California - Blue
Florida - Red
New Jersey - Blue
Illinois -Blue
Arizona -Red
Georgia -Red
Massachusetts -Blue
Pennsylvania - Red
North Carolina - Red
There is a geographic mix, as well in terms of Generally Republican trending and Generally Democratic trending states. I am sure the Parisian of us will find ways to discredit why your favorite team is on the list but the truth is in the numbers. Leaders had either failed to do enough sooner, and/or leaders are not doing enough now to solve the problem.
With a federal government sending out divisive signals States are not working with each other, but against each other, trying to win enough favor to get some extra support from the government, while other states are expected to rot. This is not good, and this is what I feared 4 years ago, would happen with Trump. As back then he reminds me of all the Bad Bosses I had over the years, and knowing what happened to companies that those bad bosses managed.
Re:How does this change anything? (Score:5, Interesting)
You think you have a Federal Administration who is trying to lead the country out of a problem? If so you have been drinking too much of its kool-aid.
The Trump Administration is out for only itself. Trying to win the next election by the same tactics it one the last one, by dividing people. It is hard to divide people when there isn't a boogyman to blame.
Leadership is currently happening on the State and Local level. Where the politicians are actually making the tough decision to enforce masking, close businesses, etc... These are not things that a Liberal or Conservative politician wants to do (despite what the cable news commentary says) because to the politician it is really distracting them from pushing the agenda they want to push, but now they have to make sure the population is safe, while trying to balance the economy and public opinion. For cases like this, we need the push towards a unified effort to solve the problem, but the Trump Administration is just trying to divide us more. Ignoring the experts, and being a general force to support the local governments efforts, to help fix the big problem.
This is why there is huge difference from State to State, in infection rates, deaths, and state in the recovery. Because leadership in each state with different ability is trying to manage the problems themselves. With mixed success. The effect on leadership isn't partisan, You can have good leaders in any party and bad leaders. Covid-19 doesn't seem to care about your political stance. This is the top 10 states by numbers of total infections New York - Blue California - Blue Florida - Red New Jersey - Blue Illinois -Blue Arizona -Red Georgia -Red Massachusetts -Blue Pennsylvania - Red North Carolina - Red There is a geographic mix, as well in terms of Generally Republican trending and Generally Democratic trending states. I am sure the Parisian of us will find ways to discredit why your favorite team is on the list but the truth is in the numbers. Leaders had either failed to do enough sooner, and/or leaders are not doing enough now to solve the problem.
With a federal government sending out divisive signals States are not working with each other, but against each other, trying to win enough favor to get some extra support from the government, while other states are expected to rot. This is not good, and this is what I feared 4 years ago, would happen with Trump. As back then he reminds me of all the Bad Bosses I had over the years, and knowing what happened to companies that those bad bosses managed.
The current top Corona hotspots in the US are mainly in red states:
https://www.nytimes.com/intera... [nytimes.com]
You can decry partisanship till the cows come home but in the end Covid has become a matter of political ideology. Furthermore, US governors in red states are pandering to DJT by not taking this pandemic seriously which is prolonging the agony and amplifying the economic damage done by the pandemic. Here's another bit of data:
https://ourworldindata.org/cor... [ourworldindata.org]
The population of the EU is about 500 million, that of the USA about 320 million. Note the difference in growth and the far higher number of total diagnosed cases in the US. This is, summed up in a single graph, the difference between efficiently stopping the spread of the disease and getting it over with quickly, and an incompetent US government that does nothing. Of course to many US-Americans the US always is the best at everything, period. So a bunch of people here will be seriously butt-hurt by it being pointed out the US isn't the best at everything period but I don't really give a rat's ass.
It IS China's fault (Score:2, Troll)
The virus originated from China because the backwards country bumpkins believe eating rare and exotic animal parts will cure your ailments and give you a bigger dick. Look up the bears raised in cages so their gall bladders can be used for "medicine".
Re:It IS China's fault (Score:4, Funny)
Stupid people... We know better! It's fat cars and guns that give you bigger dicks!
Re: It IS China's fault (Score:2)
Eating "exotic" animals isn't the issue. Keeping exotic animals in close proximity is the issue.
And what the fuck is an "exotic" animal? Which animals are prosaic enough to eat?
Talking about "exotic" animals as food strikes me as fundamentally ethno-centric.
Re: It IS China's fault (Score:3)
There's nothing wrong with consuming these animals when properly prepared.
The problem is how the animals are kept. Not that they are being consumed.
The idea that Those People are eating the Wrong Food is bunk.
Re: It IS China's fault (Score:4, Informative)
We still don't know if it came from a bat in a wet market. Markets in the third world are places where people are closely packed together and yelling loudly over each other. Not exactly the paragon of social distancing.
The bat could've just as easily pooped in some bit of farmland, transmitted it to a pig, who gave it to the farmer, who then passed it to the wet market.
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Let's not assume "it's China's fault". One could say the same thing regarding laying the blame in the first place.
Assuming this "we" you refer to includes you, what are you doing to "solve the problem first"? If nothing, which I'm quite confident is the case, then you certainly have the bandwidth to consider another issue. Fact is, we can both solve the problem and understand the lies told to us by our administration. Why is it important to you for that not to happen?
Re: How does this change anything? (Score:2)
Let's assume that it's China's fault. This keeps people from dying in the US in what way exactly
The article makes a point of emphasizing that the lab is 9 miles away from the place where the outbreak started. Why is this being treated as evidence that the lab couldn't have been the source?
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Could we try to solve the problem first and find someone to blame later?
We don't have time for that, there's an election coming. The only thing that matters right now is blaming someone else and hoping that it's democrats dying rather than republicans!
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Could we try to solve the problem first and find someone to blame later?
In this U.S. administration, finding someone (else) to blame *is* solving the problem ...
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That's my view exactly. I find China to be fairly disgusting as a nation and enjoy watching them get embarrassed when caught lying, cheating, stealing and abusing people. Huawei is great fun to run into the ground, we should do that recreationally.
But I'm not sure I really care about their role in COVID-19 unless it can be proven it was deliberate, and I don't believe that for a second. Also, it's embarrassing to the US, since we're fucking up so incredibly badly in handling it, compared to China. Sure they
Re: How does this change anything? (Score:2)
Or let's assume China's not at fault so that we can take advantage of the COVID research coming out of there.
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Ya, repeating mistakes is a recipe for success?
Re: How does this change anything? (Score:2, Interesting)
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Why would China lie? Trump's lying because he wants to be a dictator!
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Just like WMD in Iraq (Score:3, Insightful)
The rest of the world had seen this played out many times already.
US govt lied about other countries, is anyone remotely surprised?
Another "long form birth certificate" story (Score:5, Insightful)
Look, my lads, you are trying to win a religious-emotional belief argument with a rational, logical argument based on observation.
This is not what this is about.
This is about dumb fucks having fallen for partisan propaganda, and now being unable to get out again because they can't accept that they are easily manipulated real dumb fucks.
And if you now feel smug and special, let me ruin that for you, because you and I fell for such things too. Because when we are triggered, and weak, we easily fall for what we want to be true.
And a convenient scapegoat for all your problems, combined with a comforting wise saviour, is literally the basis of all religion and any -ism you might come across.
Showing them how wrong and stupid they are, can only result in two things: Them doubling down and re-inforcing their belief, or them going into hiding, willfully ignoring that part of reality, and waiting for it to be blown over and forgotten.
It will not magically change their belief. (Look how hard it is for you to accept this right now, simply because I might somewhat oppose you in my ineptness to get this across well. And you consider yourself to be rational.)
Maybe we can do this in a smarter way ...
Story is weird (Score:2)
Why would foreign diplomats be more concerned about the operating capacity of this lab and not the safety? Did they invest money in the lab?
What were the jobs not being done? Did any of them involve the safe disposal of materials? Was that done on site or handled by a third party? Journalism is dead. They don't even know what questions to ask. Instead its all politics all the time.
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Why would foreign diplomats be more concerned about the operating capacity of this lab and not the safety? Did they invest money in the lab?
Safety is always the last priority of management. I'd be shocked if they weren't more concerned with capacity.
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Look, my lads, you are trying to win a religious-emotional belief argument with a rational, logical argument based on observation.
This is not what this is about.
Yes, we need to prove the point with stupidity [ifunny.co]
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Maybe we can do this in a smarter way ...
The entire history of humanity says, "Not likely."
Not news for nerds. (Score:2)
Why post this to Slashdot. Why. Tldr but this all seems obvious, all these politicians do is make hay on cherry picked data (called outright lying when I grew up) and journalists just pushing it through the media tubes (called utter lack of ethics, also when I was growing up). I don't care if you trample all over my lawn but why do you have to muck up slashdot with this crap. There is plenty of other crap you could fling in here.
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"What the U.S. officials learned during their visits concerned them so much that they dispatched two diplomatic cables categorized as Sensitive But Unclassified back to Washington. The cables warned about safety and management weaknesses at the WIV lab and proposed more attention and help. The first cable, which I obtained, also warns that the lab’s work on bat coronaviruses and their potential human transmission represented a risk of a new SARS-like pandemic."
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And, of course, since Trump doesn't want to help foreign countries, as he sees it, he cut down on staff that pays attention and helps other countries tracking and researching infectious disease.
The summary makes it clear. (Score:5, Informative)
They were fed a few out-of-context quotes, and built them up into the article that they were supposed to write.
Now they have the full context, it is clear how badly they were mislead.
Re: Contradicts earlier WaPo quotes (Score:2)
They are lying.
Sleazebags tend to do that.
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Your own words, in order, with the inconvenient ones left out...
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Where they go one, they go all.....straight to prison.
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Poor Lynnwood. Now you have one less Trump talking point to use.
Who am I kidding. You'll go all in until the end.
Just wait until Trump dies of old age, bitterness and resentment. The conspiracy theories about who killed him will be truly outlandish. George Soros will have to hire a battalion of bodyguards.
Or they'll concoct some mythos about him faking his death in order to continue secretly leading a resistance against the deep state, only to arise back into public life at some unspecified time to make America great again, again, Arthurian style.
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Poor Lynnwood. Now you have one less Trump talking point to use.
Who am I kidding. You'll go all in until the end.
Just wait until Trump dies of old age, bitterness and resentment. The conspiracy theories about who killed him will be truly outlandish. George Soros will have to hire a battalion of bodyguards.
Or they'll concoct some mythos about him faking his death in order to continue secretly leading a resistance against the deep state, only to arise back into public life at some unspecified time to make America great again, again, Arthurian style.
... and he does all this from inside a hidden headquarters bunker underneath Mount Rushmore where he rests in a temporal stasis chamber reverse engineered from grey alien tech at Area 51. The legend of the orange god emperor in the mountain!
Re: Poor Lynnwood (Score:2)
Together with Elvis?
Re: (Score:3, Informative)
In a sane world China and all the shit its been up to with an unprecedented coverup of the virus that is unequaled in history
Coverup of what exactly? And when? People keep talking about this, but are you now talking about taking some days between sequencing the virus and publishing it? The period of confusion in December where Chinese authorities did not understand what was going on and tried to keep information down?
From early January, Chinese authorities have been providing plenty of information. By December 31st it was internationally reported.
By the mid-January China was warning the west to please take it seriously and take m
Re: (Score:2)
In a sane world China and all the shit its been up to with an unprecedented coverup of the virus that is unequaled in history
Coverup of what exactly?
An accurate, verified count of cases & deaths since March would be a good start. You know, like every other nation provides.
Except of course the US now that all data goes straight to the White House instead of the CDC.
Re: (Score:2)
In a sane world China and all the shit its been up to with an unprecedented coverup of the virus that is unequaled in history
Coverup of what exactly?
An accurate, verified count of cases & deaths since March would be a good start. You know, like every other nation provides.
Except of course the US now that all data goes straight to the White House instead of the CDC.
It goes to Health and Human Services, which is the parent of the CDC
Re: (Score:3, Informative)
In a sane world China and all the shit its been up to with an unprecedented coverup of the virus that is unequaled in history
Coverup of what exactly?
An accurate, verified count of cases & deaths since March would be a good start. You know, like every other nation provides.
Except of course the US now that all data goes straight to the White House instead of the CDC.
It goes to Health and Human Services, which is the parent of the CDC
Run by a Trump political appointee, while the CDC is not. They are bypassing the CDC.
Re: (Score:2)
where it will never see the light of day...
Re:China should be at the top of all discussions n (Score:4, Informative)
In a sane world China and all the shit its been up to with an unprecedented coverup of the virus that is unequaled in history
Coverup of what exactly?
An accurate, verified count of cases & deaths since March would be a good start. You know, like every other nation provides.
Except of course the US now that all data goes straight to the White House instead of the CDC.
Except of course the US now that all data goes straight to the HHS instead of the CDC. FTFY
The CDC reports to [hhs.gov] HHS.
And the HHS reports to the White House. It's a clear attempt to be able to hide opinions and data that aren't following the party line, just like barring the CDC from testifying at Congressional hearings about school reopenings this week.
Re: (Score:3)
In a sane world China and all the shit its been up to with an unprecedented coverup of the virus that is unequaled in history
Coverup of what exactly?
An accurate, verified count of cases & deaths since March would be a good start. You know, like every other nation provides.
Except of course the US now that all data goes straight to the White House instead of the CDC.
Except of course the US now that all data goes straight to the HHS instead of the CDC. FTFY
The CDC reports to [hhs.gov] HHS.
And the HHS reports to the White House. It's a clear attempt to be able to hide opinions and data that aren't following the party line, just like barring the CDC from testifying at Congressional hearings about school reopenings this week.
And the CDC reports to HHS which reports to the White House.
The new process is supposed to be more complete and automated, with duplication and manual input eliminated. If this proves to be untrue, if the data is really being hidden, then I will bitch alongside you. But right now this is just bitching for the sake of it. You don't really know how the data was being managed before, and you don't know if this is an improvement. It's just Orange Man Bad.
Re: (Score:3)
And the CDC reports to HHS which reports to the White House.
The new process is supposed to be more complete and automated, with duplication and manual input eliminated. If this proves to be untrue, if the data is really being hidden, then I will bitch alongside you. But right now this is just bitching for the sake of it. You don't really know how the data was being managed before, and you don't know if this is an improvement. It's just Orange Man Bad.
If this were any other administration I would give them the benefit of the doubt. This administration lost that benefit a long time ago.
Re:China should be at the top of all discussions n (Score:4, Insightful)
Trump has proven on multiple occasions that he'll ignore FACTS if it does not help his change at re-election.
What we're going to see is a dramatic decrease in cases because the White House will claim that the numbers have been falsified all along in some left wing conspiracy to make him look bad. He's going to paint himself as the victim. That is how he operates.
Meanwhile - my sister who works in health care and has been responsible for reporting cases in our relatively rural county has been telling me that the outbreaks are getting worse and the nursing homes continue to struggle and have had many Covid related deaths. The employees at these facilities are bringing the virus in and it is killing residents.
The reason we're still in this mess is because the White House claimed it was a hoax and that it would go away on its own. If they had just asked the nation to be responsible and follow the advice of health professionals, we'd be at a point now where life was mostly back to normal. But no, being ignorant, stubborn Americans we have to be ass-holes about it.. not only do some people cry about their freedoms, they openly ridicule people who do feel that wearing a mask in public is the right thing to do.
Re: (Score:3)
You seriously trust them with the data?
Trump has proven on multiple occasions that he'll ignore FACTS if it does not help his change at re-election.
What we're going to see is a dramatic decrease in cases because the White House will claim that the numbers have been falsified all along in some left wing conspiracy to make him look bad. He's going to paint himself as the victim. That is how he operates.
Meanwhile - my sister who works in health care and has been responsible for reporting cases in our relatively rural county has been telling me that the outbreaks are getting worse and the nursing homes continue to struggle and have had many Covid related deaths. The employees at these facilities are bringing the virus in and it is killing residents.
Yep. In my red state we have hospitals so full that they are having to send covid patients across the state to other hospitals and are even having to reach out to hospitals in other states. Roughly 40 hospitals in Florida have hit ICU capacity. I remember at one point recently the hospitals in Houston were overwhelmed as well. But we can't have mask mandates, because that would be evil, freedom hating socialism or something.
My wife works in a nursing home and they just had their first outbreak, brought i
Re: China should be at the top of all discussions (Score:2)
The U.S. doesn't provide such good data as you describe. The president wants to cut testing because of the effect it has on the public numbers.
True, it's much harder to get an accurate count when you've let the disease run uncontrolled through the whole population, but that's no excuse for our shit data.
Re: (Score:2)
... kidnapping people off the streets ... silencing of critics ... nationwide AI powered censorship ... cleared off medical supplies ... allowed people to make outbound flights to other countries while banning internal ones ...
I see what you did there. You just alluded to everything going on in the U.S. this year. High quality trolling.
Wait, were you trolling? Or did you not realize you just accused China of everything happening here? It's so hard to tell these days.
Re: China should be at the top of all discussions (Score:2)
By "US News" I assume you are referring to all the crazy outlets you hate-follow. I follow the actual news and have no idea what you're talking about.
Re: Bullshit... (Score:3, Interesting)
People here seem to miss sarcasm without a sarcasm tag.
Probably because reality is already off-the-charts insane.
Or perhaps "reality" (the nutty part) was just taken way too seriously and dragged through town way too much, in an attempt to catch victims, err, clicks.
Poe's law [Re: Bullshit...] (Score:3)
People here seem to miss sarcasm without a sarcasm tag.
Correct. I don't have any idea if this post was intendes as irony, as something the poster really believes, trollery, or simple cluelessness.
I doubt you do, either.
And, quite often, somebody posting something that they really believe and pretending it's meant as irony.
Probably because reality is already off-the-charts insane.
Yep.
With an anonymous coward, it's usually a safe bet that they really are crazy.
Re: CNN (Score:3)
Honest = things you like to be true
Not honest = things you don't like to be true
Re: CNN (Score:2)
Re: (Score:2)
It would take me two hours to walk that distance. But a fit Chinese person might be able to bang it out in one by jogging. Or half an hour or less on a bicycle.
What's really dumb is that none of this speaks to actual safety in the lab...
Re: (Score:2)
And the Chinese are unknown to own scooters, much less cars, especially scientists who might wanna to out for lunch at the nearest place with restaurants.
Re: (Score:2)
We have our headline here on Slashdot indicating that the communication "shows safety", and the summary indicating that it "says nothing". We have no link to the actual text, despite three links to Twitter. The rest of the links present an aggregation of summaries of summaries. Skimming through those, you can surmise the cable had something to do with a university in Galveston training guys who work in the Wuhan lab. In any case, it doesn't sound like anyone inspected the lab for safety, so "says nothing" i
Re: That settles it then (Score:2)
There's no reason for your uneducated speculation because scientists have looked into it and determined the idea it was lab made is complete horseshit.