Wondering on Wednesday (v214)

Ready... Set... Wonder!

Ah, Wednesday...  Let the wondering begin...

Will we ever meet the 'adults in the room', do you think? I mean, other than at a book signing? These mysterious people who share secrets, treasonous secrets unless they're a hoax, in which case, l guess, they're sharing lies. Except that we (ususususus, as they say on social media) shared this information with our allies, so why would we do what if it were just a hoax? Are we in some kind of celebrity game show or something? (Don't answer that.)

Is there actually someone working in the Intelligence Community named Unnamed Source, Official Briefed on the Matter, Intelligent Official, I Speak on Condition of Anonymity, Official Familiar with Intelligence, or I Am Not Authorized to Speak on Behalf of the Government? (That's got to be quite the thing on an ID badge, don't you think? Would they just use an acronym, I wonder? IANASBG, which I think would be pronounced Ian Asbag?)

And is the Intelligence Community one of those fancy gated places, like the one where lawyers brandish guns at protesters, I wonder? Or is it more like those giant retirement communities like The Villages? It sort of seems more like the latter, but I'm not really sure.

Speaking about The Villages, I learned today that if you tweet a video filled with f-bombs and senior citizens behaving badly, including repeatedly yelling "white power" and then delete it after causing a 'five-alarm fire" at the White House, you have "condemned" white power ideology, without even saying a word? It's true --Kellyanne Conway said so.

I'm at the point where I really want all of these people to arrive at the NY Times and do an Ellsberg and get all of this out in the open, before the election, so that the president will not be allowed to suck all of the air out of the room with his lies and spin and claims of hoaxing and of being the LONE WARRIOR.

I wonder, does he have a cape or something? Maybe one of those green coats like Melania wore, with writing on the back?  Would his say, "I really don't have a clue, do u?"

This latest Russia thing, another in a line of Russia things, is deeply upsetting, on a number of levels; first, let's assume it's a hoax, as the president says, (even though I'm surprised there would have been briefings for our allies on a hoax - is that just me, I wonder?)

If it's a hoax, that means there are people in the Intelligence Community actively trying to take down the Administration, and/or to interfere in the upcoming election, and/or trying to inflame our relationship with Russia and/or our allies,  or they're just a bunch of lying liars who have no ulterior motives, which might be more frightening, I'm not sure.

And of course the media has to be complicit, as are some Republicans (including my Congressman) and most Democrats, who want answers, very quickly on what's going on here. And how hard would it be for the president to convince people this is the case, I wonder?

But let's assume it's real, even if not fully fleshed out over the past many months, and think about why the president wouldn't take this seriously? Or think about why, if he knew this intelligence was out there, why would he be talking about inviting Putin to attend the G7 summit, being held on American soil, against the wishes of our allies? And why the intelligence folks wouldn't have briefed the gang of eight on this months ago, know as we all do, how Trump plays loosey-goosey with all things Russia?

Any does anyone else know why this administration insists on briefing Republicans and Democrats separately? What's up with that? Why aren't they getting the same information at the same time? Is that really necessary on a hoax or an actual threat to our servicemen and women?

Does any of this make you wonder as much as it makes me wonder, I wonder?

The Update Desk: Chinese Things

The other day I did a Quick Take on Chinese Things, noting the reason why it's unnecessary and inflammatory to continue referring to COVID-19 as the Chinese virus or the China virus, as the president and many in the GOP have been doing. After all,

I know the virus originated in China - everyone in the world knows it, protestations on China's social media or within the Chinese government notwithstanding...

And I wondered why we never referred to anything else by the Chinese point of origin.

So, why treat the virus so differently from every other product or object that originate there that are never referred to as 'Chinese' things or 'China' things.  I mean, when was the last time you heard anyone refer to their iPhone as their Chinese Phone? 

Of course you haven't. We don't do that, because it doesn't fit the narrative. But, we learned yesterday, when the G-7 foreign ministers were unable to come to terms on language for a joint statement about the global pandemic, because Secretary of State Mike Pompeo couldn't bring himself to not push the damn narrative.

That's right. According to the linked Politico article,

European officials said Pompeo had insisted in identifying the COVID-19 virus as the "Wuhan virus" even though the World Health Organization (WHO) and others have cautioned against giving it a geographic name because of its global nature.

Nor only has he not backed down from it, the article noted that Pompeo has actually been "stepping up" his use of the language. And It appears that Pompeo might not have gotten the message from his boss that it was no longer necessary to associate the virus with China.

On the other hand, maybe the message from the president as that he would no longer call it that, but for everyone else, the name-calling was still fair game.

After the meeting, Pompeo noted that everyone there was aware of what the Chinese had done in their messaging and, I would assume, in their downplaying of the virus in the beginning

Every one of the nations that was at that meeting (yesterday) was deeply aware of the disinformation campaign that the Chinese Communist Party is engaged in to try and deflect from what has really taken place here. 

And I'd suggest that every one of the nations that was at the meeting was "deeply aware" of other deflection going on, coming from a place other than China, would you agree?  In fact, according to the article,

Other foreign ministers were not nearly as emphatic in their own comments about the meeting, with at least one leaving open the suggestion that China is not the only country trying to use the outbreak to advance political points.

France's foreign minister, in fact, said that he had

underscored the need to combat any attempt to exploit the crisis for political purposes and expressed the view that the unity of all in order to effectively combat the pandemic must now take precedence over any other considerations.

Wouldn't that be something, if it happened?