Path: ...!local-4.nntp.ord.giganews.com!Xl.tags.giganews.com!local-1.nntp.ord.giganews.com!nntp.supernews.com!news.supernews.com.POSTED!not-for-mail NNTP-Posting-Date: Mon, 03 Mar 2025 17:43:41 +0000 Date: Mon, 03 Mar 2025 12:43:43 -0500 From: WolfFan Organization: the pack Mime-Version: 1.0 User-Agent: Hogwasher/5.24 Content-Type: text/plain; charset=utf-8 Content-Transfer-Encoding: 8bit Message-ID: <0001HW.2D7621CF0033C1407000102D238F@news.supernews.com> Subject: Re: (ReacTor) Five Futures Where the US Ended Not With a Bang But a Whimper Newsgroups: rec.arts.sf.written Reply-To: akwolffan@zoho.com References: Lines: 62 X-Trace: sv3-bQO6WokbfG055PffKF8D6v8sSAXLp7whP8veKHHckMaYhUyMBJOv1C4zRG+5PBgdbA8a9m/lq4YE3SF!TPCmK8stmxGNKrGuFs7O8pxt6UwNb7O5MgbWa0tjkhepGt7bVxErKfu5XEKOj8dl4X1UyfKvcgO7!6gtqE6Bvhqp8Wj+DqXzjnnxt X-Complaints-To: www.supernews.com/docs/abuse.html X-DMCA-Complaints-To: www.supernews.com/docs/dmca.html X-Abuse-and-DMCA-Info: Please be sure to forward a copy of ALL headers X-Abuse-and-DMCA-Info: Otherwise we will be unable to process your complaint properly X-Postfilter: 1.3.40 Bytes: 3717 On Feb 28, 2025, quadibloc wrote (in article): > Your tongue-in-cheec comment about Chernobyl in your review of _In The > Drift_ > was amusing. > And unlike the scenario in that book, fallout from Chernobyl didn't even > kill vast numbers of people! No; but because rumors after the disaster > grossly exaggerated the number of casualties - a consequence of the > distrust which exists in closed societies - Gorbachev decided to press > harder > on his policy of _glasnost_... which turned out to be fatal to an empire > that > was built on lies (surprise!). > And we all know the politics we've lived through following that. > China, scared by Russia's cautionary example, doubled down on being a > closed > society. Thus, doctors who tried to warn the public about COVID-19 were > beaten by police and silenced. > So the COVID-19 pandemic _was_ the fault of China's totalitarian regime. > While it > is not impossible that the virus escaped from a Chinese germ warfare > lab, we > really have no evidence of that, so I see no reason to make stuff up > when within > the facts we know we already have enough proven facts to show the > Chinese > regime is at fault. > Russia had an eventful history. Hard-line Communists tried overthrowing > Gorbachev, > leading to Yeltsin defeating them and coming to power. But Yeltsin's > response > to Chechen terrorists - indiscriminate bombing of Chechen civilians - > was a > harbinger of what was to come after he chose Vladimir Putin as his > successor. > Russia under Vladimir Putin isn't Communist. It wasn't going around > telling > the workers of the world to unite. > Just as the United States fought Communism in Korea and Vietnam, but it > did > _not_ fight fascism and Nazism in Ethiopia or in the Spanish Civil War, > therefore, Putin's forays into Georgia and Ukraine basically flew under > the > radar of the U.S.; what's a little foreign aggression if you're not seen > as > an existential threat to Big Business? > Unlike Italy, Russia was never known for having severe problems in > getting the > trains to run on time; what Russia has is a drinking problem, but past > leaders > who tried to clear that up found they were undermining one of the key > pillars > of the power of dictatorial rule in Russia, and so Putin has been > cautious in > this area. > > John Savard it’s hard enough to read your stuff when the line length is something sensible. Try to fix.