a public apology to alligator ed

Submitted by wendy davis on Sun, 03/29/2020 - 10:58am

At the end of one of his recent posts on Covid-19 and the loss of OldFactory (h/t Klinger M*A*S*H*) and sense taste, he’d written:

Dr. Wen Liang, martyred by the CCP, was the first to publicly state there was a "new kind of pneumonia. Dr Wen was an ophthalmologist.

I’d been so taken aback by his (to me) anti-Chinese agitprop, I’d said close to: ‘So you’re one of them? Who knew? Especially in this case because the only things we know about AKA: Dr. Li Wenliang come from the Western Press. There are of course myriad things we don’t know, and said later, but he felt I’d slapped him in the face, and indeed I had. I also apologize for not having taken the time to question him as to why in the world of Carmen Sandiego he’d accepted that version of Western Realpolitik so readily.

That the virus has been weaponized ever more evilly against Iran, VZ, China, Russia, Syria, and Cuba this past week is sociopathic almost beyond belief. The root cause seems to be fear and loathing of the Great Competitor Nations and their allies, as this dying Empire struggles to exert maximum pressure by increased economic terrorism (War by Other Means) in order to cause internal regime changes. As well, this Empire and NATO seek hegemonic control in any and every sphere it can...and does.

And yet China and Russia have sent boatloads, trainloads, and planeloads of help to many the hardest hit nations, both in gowns, masks, gloves, and ventilators; yet many nations have called their efforts ‘virtue-signaling after the fact’, and their products ‘useless’. Cuba has sent at least a hundred doctors and medicines to Italy, even though the US had sanctioned many of them for having helped out in Venezuela earlier.

Now I can’t say that this is so, but it does have the ring of truth to it:

‘White House Pushes U.S. Officials to Criticize China For Coronavirus ‘Cover-Up’; A State Department cable obtained by The Daily Beast says the U.S. and the American people are the “greatest humanitarians the world has ever known.”, dailybeast.com, March 21, 2020

“As the number of coronavirus cases continues to grow at a rapid pace in the U.S., the White House is launching a communications plan across multiple federal agencies that focuses on accusing Beijing of orchestrating a “cover-up” and creating a global pandemic, according to two U.S. officials and a government cable obtained by The Daily Beast.

The cable, sent to State Department officials Friday, lays out in detail the circumstances on the ground in China, including data on coronavirus cases and deaths, the local business environment and transportation restrictions. But it also issues guidelines for how U.S. officials should answer questions on, or speak about, the coronavirus and the White House’s response in relation to China.

The talking points appear to have originated in the National Security Council. One section of the cable reads “NSC Top Lines: [People’s Republic of China] Propaganda and Disinformation on the Wuhan Virus Pandemic.”

“Chinese Communist Party officials in Wuhan and Beijing had a special responsibility to inform the Chinese people and the world of the threat, since they were the first to learn of it,” the cable reads. “Instead, the... government hid news of the virus from its own people for weeks, while suppressing information and punishing doctors and journalists who raised the alarm. The Party cared more about its reputation than its own people’s suffering.”
.......................
One of the results of those internal deliberations appears to be a renewed focus on underscoring China’s missteps. Two U.S. officials working on the administration’s coronavirus response said the White House is pushing federal agencies to stick closely to the national security council’s talking points, especially when senior officials take to the podium, to ensure continuity with President Trump.”
..........................
“The [Chinese Communist Party] is waging a propaganda campaign to desperately try to shift responsibility for the global pandemic to the United States. This effort is futile,” one of the talking points in the cable reads. “Thanks to the… cover-up, Chinese and international experts missed a critical window to contain the outbreak within China and stop its global spread. Saving lives is more important than saving face.”

Well, you get the gist, but there’s more, of course.

Yes, every nation has their own propaganda and spins on issues, but no nation comes close to Amerikan (and NATO) agitprop. Iraq? "Saddam stole babies out of their incubators" for instance, was created by a Madison Ave. advertising agency; never mind compromised humanitarian NGOs including Avaaz actively pursuing the impeachment of Dima Rouseeff.

But again, alligator ed, my apologies for my cavalierly rude comment,
wd

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Comments

Submitted by mimi on Sun, 03/29/2020 - 12:37pm

Why do you listen to what the WH says?

And thank God the ophthalmologist had so much insight into the conditions a new virus would serve us with.

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https://www.euronews.com/live

Submitted by Lily O Lady on Sun, 03/29/2020 - 1:30pm

The Chinese grabbed him and made him

@mimi

sign a retraction. They didn’t appreciate his input at first. Then he got sick and the whole thing hit the internet. People were irate that he was suppressed. They followed his illness, but then he died.

—

"The object of persecution is persecution. The object of torture is torture. The object of power is power. Now do you begin to understand me?" ~Orwell, "1984"

Submitted by CB on Sun, 03/29/2020 - 1:46pm

Wendy's article is about the Trump administration

@mimi @mimi
using the Chinese doctor to denigrate China and as a tool to deflect responsibility for their extremely poor response to the coronavirus pandemic.

Keep in mind that the Chinese experienced the SARS outbreak in 2002-2004 and this would have panicked them. The Chinese did not want to panic the people until they found out what the facts were and could devise a plan of action. It would have been VERY irresponsible not to do so.

Did China really coverup the virus? A myth debunked

Over the course of the course of the outbreak, the narrative surrounding Covid-19 has changed from “China did great in containing the virus” to “China covered up the virus for weeks, CCP must be held accountable”. Many have started to parrot the Chinese “cover up” blindly without looking into the claims.

The “cover up” is largely a false narrative that was initially propagated by various news outlets, like the New York Times and the Guardian.

On March 21, leaked cables and statements from officials revealed the US State Department had informed its officials to propagate the coverup myth in order to distract the American public from its own failures.

“These talking points are all anyone is really talking about right now,” one official said. “Everything is about China. We’re being told to try and get this messaging out in any way possible, including press conferences and television appearances.”

The timeline

2019-12-01 – a viral pneumonia patient with an unknown cause was hospitalized at Jinyintan Hospital. This patient was the earliest known case of 2019-nCoV infections. The patient did not have any exposure to Huanan Seafood Market.

2019-12-27 – Dr. Zhang Jixian, ICU doctor at Hubei Hospital of Integrated Traditional Chinese and Western Medicine, files report to Wuhan Municipal Health Commission on pneumonia patients with an unknown cause. Investigation opens shortly later.

2019-12-28 – three more patients arrives to the hospital, all of whom were related to Huanan Seafood Market.

2019-12-30 – Li Wenliang sent messages to private Wechat group about 7 cases of unknown virus, (wrongly) claiming it was SARS.
...
The main claims of Chinese coverups by Western media:

1. China arrested whistleblower Li Wenliang to silence him

On December 30, Li Wenliang sent some messages to a private Wechat group with a few of his friends, claiming that he saw patient scans and that “There has been 7 confirmed cases of SARS”

Li Wenliang was an opthalmologist (a doctor specialised in eye disorders), who claimed that the virus outbreak was confirmed to be SARS. This was objectively false information spread by a doctor in an unrelated field, obviously he would get censured for spreading rumours. Also, contrary to popular belief, he was not arrested at all, only told by the police to stop spreading rumours and sign a notice. He was reportedly at the police station for only an hour, hardly as serious as Western media have made it sound.

This post goes into further detail debunking the New York Times claim that Li Wenliang was a whistleblower and shows how they twisted the story to suit their narrative: https://mronline.org/2020/03/05/yellow-caking-an-epidemic/
...

Submitted by mimi on Sun, 03/29/2020 - 1:57pm

thank you, I thought I had understood this, but

@CB
appreciate your thorough timeline and explanation a lot.

I have heard what Trump said and I have read the foreign press about Trump's words with regards to the Chinese "cover-up. My question to Wendy was a rhethorical bitter one. I have stopped listen to Trump to protect my sanity. His words are hate inciting, dumb and infuriating to any person with half a brain. I also remember the fate of the Dr. Wen Liang.

Enough. Sorry, you misunderstood my comment to Wendy. Apparently my comments are not understood the way they were meant.

#1 #1 using the Chinese doctor to denigrate China and as a tool to deflect responsibility for their extremely poor response to the coronavirus pandemic. Keep in mind that the Chinese experienced the SARS outbreak in 2002-2004 and this would have panicked them. The Chinese did not want to panic the people until they found out what the facts were and could devise a plan of action. It would have been VERY irresponsible not to do so. Did China really coverup the virus? A myth debunked Over the course of the course of the outbreak, the narrative surrounding Covid-19 has changed from “China did great in containing the virus” to “China covered up the virus for weeks, CCP must be held accountable”. Many have started to parrot the Chinese “cover up” blindly without looking into the claims. The “cover up” is largely a false narrative that was initially propagated by various news outlets, like the New York Times and the Guardian. On March 21, leaked cables and statements from officials revealed the US State Department had informed its officials to propagate the coverup myth in order to distract the American public from its own failures. “These talking points are all anyone is really talking about right now,” one official said. “Everything is about China. We’re being told to try and get this messaging out in any way possible, including press conferences and television appearances.” The timeline 2019-12-01 – a viral pneumonia patient with an unknown cause was hospitalized at Jinyintan Hospital. This patient was the earliest known case of 2019-nCoV infections. The patient did not have any exposure to Huanan Seafood Market. 2019-12-27 – Dr. Zhang Jixian, ICU doctor at Hubei Hospital of Integrated Traditional Chinese and Western Medicine, files report to Wuhan Municipal Health Commission on pneumonia patients with an unknown cause. Investigation opens shortly later. 2019-12-28 – three more patients arrives to the hospital, all of whom were related to Huanan Seafood Market. 2019-12-30 – Li Wenliang sent messages to private Wechat group about 7 cases of unknown virus, (wrongly) claiming it was SARS. ... The main claims of Chinese coverups by Western media: 1. China arrested whistleblower Li Wenliang to silence him On December 30, Li Wenliang sent some messages to a private Wechat group with a few of his friends, claiming that he saw patient scans and that “There has been 7 confirmed cases of SARS” Li Wenliang was an opthalmologist (a doctor specialised in eye disorders), who claimed that the virus outbreak was confirmed to be SARS. This was objectively false information spread by a doctor in an unrelated field, obviously he would get censured for spreading rumours. Also, contrary to popular belief, he was not arrested at all, only told by the police to stop spreading rumours and sign a notice. He was reportedly at the police station for only an hour, hardly as serious as Western media have made it sound. This post goes into further detail debunking the New York Times claim that Li Wenliang was a whistleblower and shows how they twisted the story to suit their narrative: https://mronline.org/2020/03/05/yellow-caking-an-epidemic/ ...

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https://www.euronews.com/live

Submitted by CB on Sun, 03/29/2020 - 2:35pm

We all misunderstand each other occasionally

@mimi
That's why I appreciate the dialogue we have going in C99. Wendy's report in her essay is an excellent example of this.

China could have had a faster response. But China is nation of 1.4 billion people with a highly bureaucratic government and the reports were coming in sporadically at first. We have to give them credit that they did respond within weeks of the outbreak of a number of unusual pneumonia's at different clinics/hospitals in Wuhan. Keep in mind that many of the early cases were only diagnosed retroactively after the genome was sequenced early January.

Trump's administration downplayed the severity of the coronavirus and purposely misled the American people for months in order to protect the financial interests of the US economy. He did not do a damn thing to prepare for the pandemic until the shit hit the fan. Now it is too late to fight it effectively.

United States 135,434 confirmed cases 12,321 (10.00%) 12 hr. increase 2,398 deaths

I heard Trump had a good talk with Xi several days ago and told him to get China back to work before Easter so he can get US auto workers also back to work. He doesn't want lack of parts to affect the US manufacturers. Xi replied, "Yes Sir! I'll get on it immediately." Hopefully, Trump can get Xi to do the same for the US. /s

[video:https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=vA9WKjaRZH4]

Submitted by lizzyh7 on Sun, 03/29/2020 - 2:09pm

Well, we have to gin up that war

@CB with China some way, the ones we've used so far don't seem to be working, so what better way than to blame China for killing Americans? That kind of talk is guaranGodamnteed to get the anger flowing against China and our owners are not going to let a good crisis go to waste.

#1 #1 using the Chinese doctor to denigrate China and as a tool to deflect responsibility for their extremely poor response to the coronavirus pandemic. Keep in mind that the Chinese experienced the SARS outbreak in 2002-2004 and this would have panicked them. The Chinese did not want to panic the people until they found out what the facts were and could devise a plan of action. It would have been VERY irresponsible not to do so. Did China really coverup the virus? A myth debunked Over the course of the course of the outbreak, the narrative surrounding Covid-19 has changed from “China did great in containing the virus” to “China covered up the virus for weeks, CCP must be held accountable”. Many have started to parrot the Chinese “cover up” blindly without looking into the claims. The “cover up” is largely a false narrative that was initially propagated by various news outlets, like the New York Times and the Guardian. On March 21, leaked cables and statements from officials revealed the US State Department had informed its officials to propagate the coverup myth in order to distract the American public from its own failures. “These talking points are all anyone is really talking about right now,” one official said. “Everything is about China. We’re being told to try and get this messaging out in any way possible, including press conferences and television appearances.” The timeline 2019-12-01 – a viral pneumonia patient with an unknown cause was hospitalized at Jinyintan Hospital. This patient was the earliest known case of 2019-nCoV infections. The patient did not have any exposure to Huanan Seafood Market. 2019-12-27 – Dr. Zhang Jixian, ICU doctor at Hubei Hospital of Integrated Traditional Chinese and Western Medicine, files report to Wuhan Municipal Health Commission on pneumonia patients with an unknown cause. Investigation opens shortly later. 2019-12-28 – three more patients arrives to the hospital, all of whom were related to Huanan Seafood Market. 2019-12-30 – Li Wenliang sent messages to private Wechat group about 7 cases of unknown virus, (wrongly) claiming it was SARS. ... The main claims of Chinese coverups by Western media: 1. China arrested whistleblower Li Wenliang to silence him On December 30, Li Wenliang sent some messages to a private Wechat group with a few of his friends, claiming that he saw patient scans and that “There has been 7 confirmed cases of SARS” Li Wenliang was an opthalmologist (a doctor specialised in eye disorders), who claimed that the virus outbreak was confirmed to be SARS. This was objectively false information spread by a doctor in an unrelated field, obviously he would get censured for spreading rumours. Also, contrary to popular belief, he was not arrested at all, only told by the police to stop spreading rumours and sign a notice. He was reportedly at the police station for only an hour, hardly as serious as Western media have made it sound. This post goes into further detail debunking the New York Times claim that Li Wenliang was a whistleblower and shows how they twisted the story to suit their narrative: https://mronline.org/2020/03/05/yellow-caking-an-epidemic/ ...

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Only a fool lets someone else tell him who his enemy is. Assata Shakur

Submitted by Alligator Ed on Mon, 03/30/2020 - 12:36am

There will be no shooting war with China

@lizzyh7 Nor embargoes. But more tariffs could be in the offing. Imposing further impediments to trade will result in a lose-lose scenario, much on the order of WW1. China's economy, already trying to rebound from the dual body blows of earlier Trumpian tariffs and mass shutdown of global trade, will fold if Trump places any self-destructive obstacles to not only maintaining trade at its current depressed levels, but also preventing improvement of the growing world-wide recession / depression.

Remember, the Spanish flu likely originated in an east coast U.S. military training base before the doughboys shipped over. Talk about small pox blankets. The "Spanish" flu is the worst so far--and that includes the so far, relatively puny COVID-19 total mortality. Due to as yet, incomplete testing with sensitive / specific testing, the actual case-fatality rate, as opposed to crude overall mortality, can not be known.

My feeling is that a malign folie-a-deux between the DS and MAGA is on-going. Götterdämmerung indeed. Watch for it on your favorite streaming video service.

So, here for your delight is the appropriate musical theme summing up our (USA) response to this pandemic, all in the name of empire.

[video:https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=30QzJKCUekQ]

Submitted by Lily O Lady on Sun, 03/29/2020 - 9:39pm

I heard about the doctor in late January from my daughter

@CB

and son-in-law who had just returned from China. They were not in Hubei Province, but were concerned about the virus. They had spent time in a Chinese hospital getting my granddaughter rehydrated due to severe vomiting and diarrhea.

Anyway I didn’t get the information from the US media, but instead from people who had been there as it happened.

#1 #1 using the Chinese doctor to denigrate China and as a tool to deflect responsibility for their extremely poor response to the coronavirus pandemic. Keep in mind that the Chinese experienced the SARS outbreak in 2002-2004 and this would have panicked them. The Chinese did not want to panic the people until they found out what the facts were and could devise a plan of action. It would have been VERY irresponsible not to do so. Did China really coverup the virus? A myth debunked Over the course of the course of the outbreak, the narrative surrounding Covid-19 has changed from “China did great in containing the virus” to “China covered up the virus for weeks, CCP must be held accountable”. Many have started to parrot the Chinese “cover up” blindly without looking into the claims. The “cover up” is largely a false narrative that was initially propagated by various news outlets, like the New York Times and the Guardian. On March 21, leaked cables and statements from officials revealed the US State Department had informed its officials to propagate the coverup myth in order to distract the American public from its own failures. “These talking points are all anyone is really talking about right now,” one official said. “Everything is about China. We’re being told to try and get this messaging out in any way possible, including press conferences and television appearances.” The timeline 2019-12-01 – a viral pneumonia patient with an unknown cause was hospitalized at Jinyintan Hospital. This patient was the earliest known case of 2019-nCoV infections. The patient did not have any exposure to Huanan Seafood Market. 2019-12-27 – Dr. Zhang Jixian, ICU doctor at Hubei Hospital of Integrated Traditional Chinese and Western Medicine, files report to Wuhan Municipal Health Commission on pneumonia patients with an unknown cause. Investigation opens shortly later. 2019-12-28 – three more patients arrives to the hospital, all of whom were related to Huanan Seafood Market. 2019-12-30 – Li Wenliang sent messages to private Wechat group about 7 cases of unknown virus, (wrongly) claiming it was SARS. ... The main claims of Chinese coverups by Western media: 1. China arrested whistleblower Li Wenliang to silence him On December 30, Li Wenliang sent some messages to a private Wechat group with a few of his friends, claiming that he saw patient scans and that “There has been 7 confirmed cases of SARS” Li Wenliang was an opthalmologist (a doctor specialised in eye disorders), who claimed that the virus outbreak was confirmed to be SARS. This was objectively false information spread by a doctor in an unrelated field, obviously he would get censured for spreading rumours. Also, contrary to popular belief, he was not arrested at all, only told by the police to stop spreading rumours and sign a notice. He was reportedly at the police station for only an hour, hardly as serious as Western media have made it sound. This post goes into further detail debunking the New York Times claim that Li Wenliang was a whistleblower and shows how they twisted the story to suit their narrative: https://mronline.org/2020/03/05/yellow-caking-an-epidemic/ ...

—

"The object of persecution is persecution. The object of torture is torture. The object of power is power. Now do you begin to understand me?" ~Orwell, "1984"

Submitted by Alligator Ed on Mon, 03/30/2020 - 12:54am

My thanks, wendy

Your apology is appreciated. I know you made your comment with incomplete knowledge of my intent.

To CB, colleague in investigations into the, dare I say it, Wu Flu: Dr. Wen or Dr. Li, however his surname goes, was arrested--even though only for an hour or so. He was also ~~coerced~~ convinced by logical argument to sign a formal statement denouncing his rash, incorrect, politically unwise pronouncement of a new viral threat being present--even as the Chinese CDC was sequencing the virus. Dr. Wen was not far off on his determination of viral ontogeny. It was due to a sub variety of coronavirus: SAR-CoV-2, instead of the prior epidemic's SARS-CoV-1.

After succumbing to the Wu Flu, Dr. Wen was officially "rehabilitated" by the CCP, ensuring that his family no longer has to bear the shame and ostracism such official shunning entails.

The tectonic upheaval in globalism,. trade, health practices, social realignments, distortion of existing political institutions to even greater monstrosity is only beginning. Too soon to tell into which final attitude of repose the massive planetary plates eventually settle once the geologic energy has been reduced to lowest entropy. My one prediction, imprecise as it may be, is that the world will bear little resemblance to its status pre-COVID-19.

For those insightful enough to see into the future through the present haze, perhaps you could enlighten us benighted souls, whose viewpoints are still shrouded in the sulfurous explosions as the crust shifts, opening calderas of fire and brimstone.

[video:https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=eqfElKkC60A]