AMERICAN EXCEPTIONALISM

ALEX COCKBURN—The narcotizing, humorless properties of the ‘MacNeil/Lehrer Report,’ familiar to anyone who has felt fatigue creep over him at 7:40 Eastern time, are crucial to the show. Tedium is of the essence, since the all-but- conscious design of the program is to project vacuous dithering (‘And now, for another view of Hitler …’) into the mind of the viewers, until they are properly convinced that there is not one answer to ‘the problem,’ but two or even three, and that since two answers are no better than none, they might as well not bother with the problem at all.

MoA—The U.S. is likely to already have a significant number of cases but a lack of testing capacity has made any realistic estimate impossible. Chinese scientists had published the genome sequence of the virus on January 12 and, based on it, developed test kits within a few days. The U.S. Center of Disease Control and Prevention also developed a test kit but had problems with its first version and its wider distribution. More than a month later it is still not ready for the foreseeable need.

PHILIP GIRALDI—The Times article was written by David Sanger, the paper’s venerable national security correspondent. He is reliably wedded to Establishment views of the Russian threat, as is his newspaper, and strikes rock bottom in his assessment when he cites none other than “Victoria Nuland, who in a long diplomatic career had served both Republican and Democratic administrations, and had her phone calls intercepted and broadcast by Russian intelligence services.”

JIM KAVANAGH—That would be the same Mike Bloomberg who has “never been in favor of raising the minimum wage,” is in favor of cutting social Security and Medicare, and thinks the financial crisis was caused by a liberal Congress forcing banks to end redlining. That would be the Mike Bloomberg who is the ninth richest person in the world, with more wealth than 125 million of his fellow citizens.

For the current government of President Sebastián Piñera, the plebiscite is the ideal opportunity to neutralize the serious crisis that the country has been experiencing since last October, which has so far left more than 30 people dead and thousands injured.

If the plebiscite is approved, the election of the constituents will be held in October. The new Constitution, which must be drafted in a maximum of one year, will be ratified in another plebiscite, this one with a compulsory vote.