Two thousand years ago Cicero wrote about a noted Roman judge, Lucius Cassius Longinus Ravilla, that the Roman people regarded him as a “most honest and wise judge.” Cassius, in an effort to reach the most accurate and just finding, was famous for asking, again and again: Cui bono? “Good to whom?” Or, more colloquially: Who benefits?

Maybe we should be asking that sort of thing as we go through the news every day?

As we try to set through the noise and mess in the daily news it’s always interesting to see what gets buried and what gets headlines.

We can all agree that slavery is evil.

Well, okay, maybe we can’t. Some of “us” are, apparently, profiting from slavery. Okay, not just apparently. Rather, some are profiting in fact. Thankfully, all of them are supporters of Donald Trump and the Alt Right. Well, okay, no they’re not. In fact, they’re supporters of the far left.

You know, folks like the folks at Nike. The same Nike that doesn’t like Betsy Ross. All of them vociferous supporters of the current revolution. All of them with low cost, high profit contracts with Chinese Government owned corporations that use de facto slave labor to produce low cost goods that help profit margins. But they are free to pontificate about this, that and the other thing, casting aspersions on average Americans who, in fact, do not support slavery, who do not support racism, and who do not support working with China.

Consider all the companies that have demonstrated their virtues, publicly supported the various woke causes, and usually have rebuked and mocked not only Trump, but also the average American.
Think of all the products and their various celebrity sponsors from the following list of companies:

Adidas
Calvin Klein
Campbell Soup
Coca Cola
Kraft Heinz
Nike
Patagonia
Tommy Hilfiger

Where did that list come from? Well, that’s a partial list of companies named in a report by a bi-partisan Congressional Committee, companies that:“…are suspected of directly employing forced labor or sourcing from suppliers that are suspected of using forced labor” in China. The report notes that an estimated 1.8 million Uighurs and others have been detained in labor camps in Xinjiang province alone. Work camps; like concentration camps. The report came out in March, the Wall Street Journal reported on it, but frankly, little has changed.

Outrage about nearly non-existent police brutality continues, but China? Slave labor? Hollywood has had massive investment from China, and the amount of money flowing into US professional sports from China is substantial. So…

But if we really are concerned with slavery and oppression, shouldn’t we try to end this Chinese behavior?

Cui bono?

And while we’re trying to sort this out, what is the story behind hydroxychloroquine? Perhaps it works – some doctors think so. Suddenly, after 65 years of safe usage state governments have decided that doctors should not be prescribing as they – the doctors – see fit, and more to the point, that doctors shouldn’t be allowed to talk about it. It is interesting to note that in 2005 the Virology Journal published a study conducted at NIH that showed: We report, however, that chloroquine has strong antiviral effects on SARS-CoV infection of primate cells. And apparently the Wuhan virus is closely related to SARS-CoV.

And, here are some interesting numbers – Wuhan virus cases in Africa (as of 29 July):

– Confirmed cases 874,036
– Active cases 330,981
– Recoveries 524,557
– Number of deaths 18,498

“Deaths per confirmed cases” is 1 per 47 cases. In the US that rate is 1 death per 29 cases (154,000 deaths out of 4,600,000 cases). And the overall death rate (deaths as a percentage off the total population – the number, by the way, that Dr. Fauci said for several months was the only one that really counted) is 1 death per 72,000 persons in Africa, versus 1 for every 2,143 in the US.

Is it relevant that there is a good deal of malaria in Africa and hydroxychloroquine is used as a prophylactic against malaria? Or that India sent a very large shipment of the drug to Africa in May? I don’t know. But it is interesting. It’s also interesting that hydroxychloroquine is inexpensive and generically produced…

Lucius Cassius might well ask: Cui Bono?

Copyright 2020 Arrias
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