HereI don't throw around the word "prophetic" lightly.
But back on March 19th in "Coronavirus Chronicles #1," I mentioned that we were living in a version of 1984. More specifically, the part where the branch of the government called the Ministry of Truth spent its time altering records of the past so that they would more closely match up with governmental pronouncements in the present: if the government said on Monday that the chocolate ration was set to be increased from 10 grams to 15, then on Tuesday cut the ration from 10 grams to 8, the Ministry of Truth's job would be to go through newspapers and records to change Monday's announcement to something like, "we're going to raise the ration from 5 to 8" or somesuch. The goal was to change the records of the past so that the government was never wrong.
On March 13th, I mentioned that this sort of thing was beginning to happen here in the U.S. with our federal government.
It's now April 3rd, and this happened:
Jared Kushner was inexplilcably at a Coronavirus Task Force briefing where he claimed the national stockpile of medical supplies was not meant to be used by the individual states of the union. Here's the exact quote: "And the notion of the federal stockpile was it’s supposed to be our stockpile; it’s not supposed to be state stockpiles that they then use." That's from the White House's transcript of the meeting. It's the government's own transcript.
Well, it turns out that the website for the governmental agency in charge of the medical stockpile said EXACTLY THE OPPOSITE. So, in effect, Kushner got it wrong. He was wrong about what the stockpile was for.
Here's what the website originally said, prior to his comments:
"Strategic National Stockpile is the nation's largest supply of life-saving pharmaceuticals and medical supplies for use in a public health emergency severe enough to cause local supplies to run out. When state, local, tribal, and territorial responders request federal assistance to support their response efforts, the stockpile ensures that the right medicines and supplies get to those who need them most during an emergency. Organized for scalable response to a variety of public health threats, this repository contains enough supplies to respond to multiple large-scale emergencies simultaneously."
So far, this is just another example of the Trump administration being dead wrong on an issue. We've all come to expect that. Kushner said something that was wrong, and he was called out on it with actual quotes from the government's own website.
Then a funny thing happened. And by "funny," I mean "absolutely terrifyingly Orwellian." The government changed the website so that its wording matched Kushner's comments.
Here's how the website reads now, after his comments:
"The Strategic National Stockpile's role is to supplement state and local supplies during public health emergencies. Many states have products stockpiled, as well. The supplies, medicines, and devices for life-saving care contained in the stockpile can be used as a short-term stopgap buffer when the immediate supply of adequate amounts of these materials may not be immediately available."
In other words, in order to make Kushner's comments be correct, they simply went back and changed the records. He who controls the past controls the present.
So, comrades, curl up in front of the telescreen, pour yourself a nice cupful of oily Victory gin (with cloves or without), participate in the Two Minutes Hate, and settle back secure in the knowledge that Oceania has always been at war with Eastasia.
Be seeing you!
But back on March 19th in "Coronavirus Chronicles #1," I mentioned that we were living in a version of 1984. More specifically, the part where the branch of the government called the Ministry of Truth spent its time altering records of the past so that they would more closely match up with governmental pronouncements in the present: if the government said on Monday that the chocolate ration was set to be increased from 10 grams to 15, then on Tuesday cut the ration from 10 grams to 8, the Ministry of Truth's job would be to go through newspapers and records to change Monday's announcement to something like, "we're going to raise the ration from 5 to 8" or somesuch. The goal was to change the records of the past so that the government was never wrong.
On March 13th, I mentioned that this sort of thing was beginning to happen here in the U.S. with our federal government.
It's now April 3rd, and this happened:
Jared Kushner was inexplilcably at a Coronavirus Task Force briefing where he claimed the national stockpile of medical supplies was not meant to be used by the individual states of the union. Here's the exact quote: "And the notion of the federal stockpile was it’s supposed to be our stockpile; it’s not supposed to be state stockpiles that they then use." That's from the White House's transcript of the meeting. It's the government's own transcript.
Well, it turns out that the website for the governmental agency in charge of the medical stockpile said EXACTLY THE OPPOSITE. So, in effect, Kushner got it wrong. He was wrong about what the stockpile was for.
Here's what the website originally said, prior to his comments:
"Strategic National Stockpile is the nation's largest supply of life-saving pharmaceuticals and medical supplies for use in a public health emergency severe enough to cause local supplies to run out. When state, local, tribal, and territorial responders request federal assistance to support their response efforts, the stockpile ensures that the right medicines and supplies get to those who need them most during an emergency. Organized for scalable response to a variety of public health threats, this repository contains enough supplies to respond to multiple large-scale emergencies simultaneously."
So far, this is just another example of the Trump administration being dead wrong on an issue. We've all come to expect that. Kushner said something that was wrong, and he was called out on it with actual quotes from the government's own website.
Then a funny thing happened. And by "funny," I mean "absolutely terrifyingly Orwellian." The government changed the website so that its wording matched Kushner's comments.
Here's how the website reads now, after his comments:
"The Strategic National Stockpile's role is to supplement state and local supplies during public health emergencies. Many states have products stockpiled, as well. The supplies, medicines, and devices for life-saving care contained in the stockpile can be used as a short-term stopgap buffer when the immediate supply of adequate amounts of these materials may not be immediately available."
In other words, in order to make Kushner's comments be correct, they simply went back and changed the records. He who controls the past controls the present.
So, comrades, curl up in front of the telescreen, pour yourself a nice cupful of oily Victory gin (with cloves or without), participate in the Two Minutes Hate, and settle back secure in the knowledge that Oceania has always been at war with Eastasia.
Be seeing you!
RSS Feed