It annoys me with the claim of China "hoarding" supplies.
Well based on the current mindset this country operates on:
1. With "America First" thinking, it would seem to be hypocritical to not expect then another country to think and act the same way. 2. "hoarding" I believe means keeping more then you need, stockpiling is keeping what you need, not many here will confess to "hoarding" TP, which I bet most here have not yet had the need to replenish even now . Not sure which can fairly be attributed to China , yet. 3. If a country (America) decides to farm out manufacturing of critical supplies to get a item at a cheaper price, what basis do they logically have to complain about supplies being short and prices high when demand spikes, for any reason?
I am only addressing the "hoarding" claim here, the tamping down of the data of the disease is a separate issue, which however mimics informationally a lot of what Americans were fed in the early stages.
1) America first thinking and action are two different things. Clearly all we've been doing is the thinking part. Hypocritical? I don't care if the Chicoms look out for themselves or not. But clearly they've been doing that around the world by bullying, intimidating, extorting, and stealing anything they could get their hands on. We have failed to ACT and have allowed the Chinese to get a firm grasp on our short hairs. "America first" isn't about abusing the rest of the world, it's about not letting them abuse us.
2) Hoarding? How about "extorting". They didn't need this stuff for their own people, they just killed them. It was held back and used as a weapon. Much of what the Chinese produces is for export. BUT the CCP owns it all, There are no private businesses there who might be concerned with something so inconvenient as ethics. PPE and pharma made and intended for export was kept from being shipped and/or held hostage. That's different from keeping what you already have. Medical equipment was donated to China at the beginning of this when they were the ones dealing with it. Once it became a problem in other places, the countries that had donated stuff to them were forced to buy it back at black market prices.
3) What If I agree to make a product for you for a price, and follow through on that for years. And you are satisfied to the point to where I'm doing 100% of that product for you. Then one day the crap hits the fan. You call me up wanting more of this product, which has gone from being routine to life or death overnight. And I say to you, "You know jcc, I know you've been getting this stuff from me for years, but it looks like I might need more for myself. So I'm gonna keep mine and yours as well. And besides that, I don't like the way you've been treating me lately, so you can go pack sand and drop dead if you don't like it" Would you have a reason to complain?
The Chicoms are belligerent savages, bullies, thieves, murdering backstabbers. Always have been. But we crawled in bed with them because we got something from them. And now, here we are. Were all the Harbor Freight tools and cheap parts worth it? We didn't have these problems before we decided to become pals with them in the early 70s did we? And now we have to drag it all back home. Either that or expect their behavior to continue to degenerate and for them to continue to beat our a$$es.
Last edited by CMcAllister; 05/13/2004:11 PM.
If the results don't match the theory, change the theory.
