[ExI] Even India and Haiti do it better

Sat May 9 20:14:44 UTC 2020

The pandemic was not a failing of any politician or political philosophy
other than China, spike

Just one nit:  The White House knew of the virus in January if I recall
correctly, while millions of masks, ventilators and other equipment were
sold to China.  Hard to say who to blame, but clearly the White House is to
blame.  No?

bill w

On Sat, May 9, 2020 at 1:51 PM spike jones via extropy-chat <
extropy-chat at lists.extropy.org> wrote:

>
>
>
>
> > *On Behalf Of *John Clark via extropy-chat
> *Subject:* Re: [ExI] Even India and Haiti do it better
>
>
>
> On Sat, May 9, 2020 at 10:45 AM spike jones via extropy-chat <
> extropy-chat at lists.extropy.org> wrote:
>
>
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> > *It feels like you are trying to leverage a crisis into an opportunity.*
>
>
>
> >…I know it's not politically correct to say but I think if somebody can
> profit from a tragedy, or turn a crisis into a opportunity, or turn a lemon
> into lemonade, or in general find a way to extract a little good from
> something very bad then that would be nothing to be ashamed of…
>
>
>
> If a tragedy is used to seize political power, that isn’t turning a
> tragedy to an opportunity, it is turning it into a greater tragedy.  It
> causes increased distrust.  John it worked in this case: people who read
> your posts don’t trust your judgement or your cause.  Some of us think it
> is an elaborate false flag attack rather than the totalitarian manifesto it
> appears to be.
>
>
>
> Plenty of us know what really happened here: this virus jumped from bats
> to humans in Wuhan, China attempted to contain it while covering it up,
> foreign nationals became infected, it got loose, spread across the globe,
> governments were ineffective in stopping it, regardless of what they did or
> didn’t do, hundreds of thousands have died and many more will.  This is not
> an opportunity to profit, it is a tragedy.
>
>
>
> Any political leader who uses this tragedy as an opportunity to seize
> power is never to be trusted.  Vote em out.
>
>
>
> >… in fact I'd say it would be a very Extropian thing to do, at least in
> Max's original meaning of the word…
>
>
>
> I very much disagree.  Using the Covid pandemic to promote any political
> view is deplorable, even libertarianism, which is why I haven’t gone
> there.  Libertarianism, where it exists, didn’t stop this, no brand of
> political thought seems to have made much difference in the long run.  The
> virus doesn’t know or care what political party is in charge.
>
>
>
>
>
> >> …to be reminded of the grim reality that an American dies of this
> virus about every 49 seconds, but with all Trump's grandiose talk…
>
>  *> **The Federal government doesn’t have the final say on that. *
>
>
>
> >…If sure doesn't as long as Trump is running the show…
>
>
>
> Doubling down will not help.  The pandemic was not a failing of any
> politician or political philosophy other than China, but it certainly
> pointed out some really obvious vulnerabilities not connected directly to
> politics: we have built cities that are inherently vulnerable to this sort
> of thing.  We don’t even know what other vulnerabilities have quietly
> evolved, but I suspect we have more of them.  Persistently running a
> federal-level deficit creates a situation where the Federal government
> cannot respond effectively in an actual emergency.  Deficits and borrowing
> are for emergencies, not for standard operations.
>
>
>
> >… when something bad happens he will claim that's not his department and
> blame governors or mayors or China…
>
>
>
> Not governors, not mayors, not his department, YES CHINA!  Yes China damn
> sure is to blame, you bet your ass they are at fault here, grievously so.
> China kept this quiet, hoping to contain it, which put the entire planet at
> risk.  They influenced the World Health Organization to assure governments
> all over Europe to keep their borders open too long.  China is to blame for
> that.
>
>
>
> No government has been able to contain this outbreak, not one.  Some
> delayed it a little, but none stopped it.  China externalized risk to the
> entire planet, and we are all paying the devastating price.  Economies
> everywhere will be crushed, regardless of what form of government they
> have, every country, everywhere.
>
>
>
> The virus was late getting to Africa, but the overall crushing impact will
> likely be worse there: they have fewer resources with which to resist.  The
> total death toll may get dramatically worse.  Those nations with 2 and 3
> day doubling times are mostly in Africa.  Oh mercy.
>
>
>
>
>
> >>  *I don’t see you posting curses on Xi Jinping.  Why is that?*
>
>
>
> >…Because my Chinese paymasters wouldn't like it obviously…
>
>
>
> If we could be absolutely sure you don’t have actual Chinese paymasters,
> we would take that as satire.  China did this to us, specifically President
> Xi, and John you posted comments defending Xi as late as March 17.  He was
> the one who issued orders to keep it quiet, then threatened anyone who
> would warn the world in time to do something useful.  Oh shameful was that
> deplorable act.  Xi is to blame more than anyone anywhere at any time.  His
> decisions and catastrophic actions have killed hundreds of thousands and
> devastated economies everywhere.
>
>
>
> *>> **Trump doesn’t make the call on that.  *
>
>
>
> >…Trump very strongly disagrees:
>
>
>
> When somebody is president of the United States, the authority is total
> <https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=r3QXrQDTDYo>
>
>
>
> If anything good comes of all this tragedy, it educates politicians that
> their power is limited, intentionally so.  POTUS has been schooled on that,
> now governors have been reminded of that, and so on, all the way down.
> They can issue their orders, but at some point we, the people will do what
> we need to do in order to save our businesses and livelihood.
>
>
>
> The USA is a nation which was born in rebellion against tyranny.  It is in
> our national DNA, it is in our constitution, it is the reason we are a
> special case country.  We intentionally limit government power, for a
> reason: power corrupts.
>
>
>
>
>
> *> **May you escape all illness John.*
>
>
>
> >…And you too Spike. John K Clark
>
>
>
> May we all.  Let’s hope this data from China is accurate (I don’t believe
> it is (but I am hoping so with every fiber of my being.))  If it is true,
> in a couple of months we can expect the pandemic to tail off to nothing.
>
>
>
> spike
>
>
>
>
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