{"id":48198,"date":"2014-10-17T10:12:51","date_gmt":"2014-10-17T15:12:51","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.shotinthedark.info\/wp\/?p=48198"},"modified":"2014-10-17T11:24:03","modified_gmt":"2014-10-17T16:24:03","slug":"this-is-how-stupid-they-think-you-are","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"http:\/\/www.shotinthedark.info\/wp\/?p=48198","title":{"rendered":"This Is How Stupid They Think You Are"},"content":{"rendered":"

SCENE:\u00a0 The Admiralty, London, May, 1940.\u00a0 Winston CHURCHILL is poring over a map in the Admiralty’s operation’s center, looking over the deteriorating situation in France.\u00a0 He is joined by Admiral Nigel FRIEDEN, head of the Royal Navy’s public health wing.<\/em><\/p>\n

<\/em>CHURCHILL:\u00a0 It is clear that we are going to have to evacuate the British Army from France.\u00a0 In addition to a maximum effort by the Royal Navy, we’ll need thousands of civilian boats to help get the troops off the beaches and evacuate them from the Nazis.\u00a0<\/p>\n

FRIEDEN:\u00a0 I’m afraid that’s a bad idea, sir.<\/p>\n

CHURCHILL:\u00a0 Why do you say that?<\/p>\n

FRIEDEN:\u00a0 If we evacuate the Army, it will just make the occupation worse in England.\u00a0 Also, we’ll have to use the fleet to evacuate Germans from England, too, then.<\/p>\n

CHURCHILL:\u00a0 That makes no sense.<\/p>\n

FRIEDEN:\u00a0 I’m an expert.\u00a0<\/p>\n

NEXT SCENE:\u00a0The US Air Force base at Wiesbaden, West Germany, June, 1948.\u00a0 General Lucius CLAY, commander of US Military Government in occupied West Germany, is looking at a map of the Eastern Zone.\u00a0 Ominously, red Soviet stars sit astride the three road\/rail routes supplying West Berlin; the Soviets have just instituted a blockade, trying to starve West Berlin into the Soviet sphere.\u00a0 Clay looks pensive.\u00a0 He is joined at the map table by Brigadier (one-star) General Maximilian FRIEDEN, head of his public health corps.\u00a0<\/em><\/p>\n

<\/em>CLAY:\u00a0 Blockade, schmockade.\u00a0 We will need to start the greatest airlift in history to keep Berlin supplied.\u00a0 It will show Stalin that we’re serious about<\/p>\n

FRIEDEN:\u00a0 We can’t, General.<\/p>\n

CLAY:\u00a0 What the hell?<\/p>\n

FRIEDEN:\u00a0 If we bring food, medicine and coal to Berlin, it’ll just make the hunger, disease and cold worse.\u00a0 Also, for every load of supplies we bring in, we’ll have to bring a plane-load of Soviet spies and commandos back.\u00a0<\/p>\n

CLAY:\u00a0 Whose army do you serve?<\/p>\n

SCENE:\u00a0 April 1975.\u00a0 As the North Vietnamese Army overruns Saigon’s last line of defenses, US Marine Brigadier General Richard CAREY is discussing the upcoming evacuation of Americans and certain Vietnamese from Saigon.\u00a0 Artillery is heard in the distance, as CAREY makes the final plans to remove the last Americans, and as many Vietnamese as possible, from the Embassy compound .\u00a0 He is addressing a group of officers, including State Department public health attache T. Morton FRIEDEN. <\/em><\/p>\n

<\/em>CAREY:\u00a0 And so we’ll bring in the helicopters from the aircraft carriers.\u00a0 We’ll get the last of the Marines out by 1800 hours.\u00a0<\/p>\n

FRIEDEN:\u00a0 General, that’s a bad idea.\u00a0 Evacuating Marines will only make them more subject to Communist rule.\u00a0 And for every helicopter full of Marines you remove, you’ll need to bring one full of Vietnamese back from the ships.\u00a0<\/p>\n

CAREY:\u00a0 (Stands, slack-jawed<\/em>).<\/p>\n

———-<\/p>\n

CDC director Thomas Frieden is telling us that wejust can’tstop all flights coming in from West Africa, because…:<\/p>\n

It’ll Make the Epidemic Worse<\/strong>:\u00a0 Because ancient tribal burial rituals, lack of information about handling infections, and superstitions about healthcare workers aren’t bad enough; dispersing the epidemic all around the world must be ten times <\/em>better!<\/p>\n

If we stop air travel, we won’t be able to bring supplies<\/strong>:\u00a0 That’s only true if all flights from <\/em>West Africa are on disposable aircraft, or are kamikaze flights.\u00a0 Planes can fly in the other direction.\u00a0 <\/em>Hopefully to drop off supplies and trained well-equipped healthcare workers.\u00a0 And return empty, until the crisis eases.<\/p>\n

I imagine Mr. Frieden knows this.\u00a0 But judging by the last round of elections, it’s a lot for a plurality of Amerians to understand…<\/p>\n

UPDATE: You think I’m selling Dr. Friedman short?\u00a0<\/p>\n

Read this – especially Dr. Frieden’s interview with Megyn Kelly<\/a>.\u00a0<\/p>\n

It only looks like one of my parodies.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

SCENE:\u00a0 The Admiralty, London, May, 1940.\u00a0 Winston CHURCHILL is poring over a map in the Admiralty’s operation’s center, looking over the deteriorating situation in France.\u00a0 He is joined by Admiral Nigel FRIEDEN, head of the Royal Navy’s public health wing. CHURCHILL:\u00a0 It is clear that we are going to have to evacuate the British Army […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[66,64,44],"tags":[236,313],"class_list":["post-48198","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-health-care","category-president-obama","category-stupid","tag-dramatization","tag-ebola"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"http:\/\/www.shotinthedark.info\/wp\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/48198","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"http:\/\/www.shotinthedark.info\/wp\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"http:\/\/www.shotinthedark.info\/wp\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.shotinthedark.info\/wp\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.shotinthedark.info\/wp\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=48198"}],"version-history":[{"count":4,"href":"http:\/\/www.shotinthedark.info\/wp\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/48198\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":48201,"href":"http:\/\/www.shotinthedark.info\/wp\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/48198\/revisions\/48201"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"http:\/\/www.shotinthedark.info\/wp\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=48198"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.shotinthedark.info\/wp\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=48198"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.shotinthedark.info\/wp\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=48198"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}