Zuma in Wonderland

Zuma in Wonderland

ebolaidiotsWhat do the U.S. Army Chief of Staff, a governor and numerous Congressmen have in common with Jacob Zuma, the President of South Africa?

Like Zuma, they deny simple facts of science, in this case about ebola. Like Zuma, they should be sacked.

Rand Paul and Georgia Governor Zeal along with a host of other nuts in Congress are unfortunately just as astute politicians as Jacob Zuma, so I don’t expect they’ll be leaving the scene, soon.

But Martin Dempsey is a soldier, and the country’s top soldier, and Obama should immediately fire him.

“If you bring two doctors who happen to have that specialty (Ebola) into a room, one will say, ‘No, it will never become airborne, but it could mutate so it would be harder to discover.’ Another doctor will say, ‘If it continues to mutate at the rate it’s mutating, and we go from 20,000 infected to 100,000, the population might allow it to mutate and become airborne, and then it will be a serious problem.’ I don’t know who is right,” Dempsey, the chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, told CNN this weekend.

This is America’s top soldier. This is one reason we have so many failed wars led by a military that’s incapable of being controlled.

Jacob Zuma contends you can simply protect yourself from AIDS by taking a rigorous shower after unprotected sex.

How the world, the U.S. or Africa, has allowed leaders whose beliefs are so warped to survive is more terrifying than any possible 9/11 threat. Neither is really a leader. Both Zuma and Dempsey are followers of the frightened and ignorant masses on which they depend.

Where I grow so angry is that at least one of them, Dempsey, can be sacked. Right now. No questions asked. If Dempsey believes what he said, imagine what he might believe about the war against ISIS.

This weekend CNN in print finally did what CNN-US never could: criticize CNN-US:

“What’s more disturbing than Ebola? The outrageous commentary,” the CNN headline by Michael Martinez read.

I hope the link above works for you, because CNN has modified its story and changed its link several times since it first appeared early Saturday morning. Clearly Martinez’ fresh and honest approach to news is anathema to Wolf Blitzer’s America.

Before all is lost, here are a few other choice comments Martinez compiled in that story:

“If someone has Ebola at a cocktail party, they’re contagious and you can catch it from them.” — Sen. Rand Paul

“The most comforting thing that I heard from (Dr. Brenda Fitzgerald, commissioner of the Georgia Department of Public Health) was that water kills the Ebola virus.” – Georgia Governor Nathan Deal

“The U.S. must immediately stop all flights from EBOLA infected countries or the plague will start and spread inside our ‘borders.’ Act fast!” – Donald Trump

“Reports of illegal migrants carrying deadly diseases such as swine flu, dengue fever, Ebola virus and tuberculosis are particularly concerning.” — Georgia Republican Rep. Phil Gingrey, a medical doctor

“I don’t know … But I think this Ebola epidemic is a form of population control.” — R&B star Chris Brown

Crazy rightest Michael Savage said President Barack Obama wants to infect America with Ebola: “There is not a sane reason to take three- or four-thousand troops and send them into a hot Ebola zone without expecting at least one of them to come back with Ebola, unless you want to infect the nation with Ebola.”

There’s more where these came from and in multitudes of other stories, and it’s a shame that CNN has been so dainty in modifying and adjusting Martinez’ first filing.

These people are influential, powerful Americans. We already know they could care less about Africa, much less any community outside of their own cocktail parties.

Their beliefs have traction in America because Americans are poorly educated and have an increasingly myopic view of themselves and their communities.

The most important fact to recognize on this day that the World Health Organization declared Nigeria “ebola-free” while America still isn’t (because of Texas), is that without much more help from the outside of the sort Obama is offering, the epidemic in Africa will get worse and worse.

It is, in fact, possible to imagine a scenario a few years down the line if people like Dempsey, Paul, Deal and others held sway, where futile attempts to isolate the current infected countries turned into a world epidemic.

That is exactly what these ignoramuses if they prevail will ultimately cause.

Donald Trump couldn’t survive a week without the government he decries, and we’ve been able to live with that contradiction for a long time. His influence on Americans is counterbalanced so far by enough of us sane people.

But his (and other’s) influence in calling for an isolations of West Africa is not so easy to contain in today’s troubled and frightened America.

If you are reading this… if you are not as troubled and ignorant as the characters above, say something, please. Just a sentence. Just a few words of truth to your neighbor.

It’s not just the survival of millions of west Africans that’s in play. It’s the sanctity of truth.

2 thoughts on “Zuma in Wonderland

  1. I have been trying. Desperately! What is amazing is that no one seems to process that none of Mr Duncan’s family, friends or contacts have gotten sick even though he was symptomatic and “in the community” for days after his first ER visit. In the US Ebola is a legitimate threat ONLY to healthcare workers who have direct contact with very ill patients and that risk can be minimized with proper isolation protocol.

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