A truly amazing piece of US govt stenography from the NYT. 1900 words on how the Evil Chinese and Russians are trying to steal US vaccine research then when they address the obvious follow up “is the US stealing vaccine research?” they say, uh, maybe but it’s totally on accident! 
Reminder that the most fundamental axiom of American “foreign policy” and “national security” reporting is the US can never be an aggressor. Ever. They must always been RESPONDING to aggression. They are perpetually bumbling around trying to keep up with primary mover bad actors.
All missile systems are defensive missile systems, all propaganda is counter propaganda, all war budgets are presented as being in response to “emerging aggression”. We can never draw first blood by definition
But I’m totally sure the Trump administration, which notoriously respects national sovereignty and has zero incentive to find a vaccine by November, has not ordered any of its intelligence agencies to hack China and Russia. This is a real thing, I, a smart person, believe
NYT buries a rather important scoop here, that the US is hacking Russia, China, and Iran to steal their coronavirus research! I’d love to know more about that. Details, how exactly is it “defensive”. Instead we get more Oriental Baddies Coming For Us “officials say” press release
