Colin Powell has died.  I think he is an example of a man who had done some great things but had also made big mistakes.  He had risen to the top of American military and political hierarchy.  He could have been the first Black American president.  There were polls that showed he would have beaten Clinton in 1992 if he had run.  But think he was too loyal to challenge his boss, George H W Bush.

But his loyalty probably caused him more than the presidency.  It caused him his reputation.  He is ultimately a soldier and a company man.  That is why, despite reservations, he became the point man in selling the Iraq war with his fake vial of WMD at the UN.  I give him a pass because I think he is way less guilty than warmongers and draft dodgers like Cheney and Bolton.

But this one mistake caused him standing among the left even though plenty of them supported the Iraq war themselves.  He lost support on the right with his moderate stances and his endorsement of Obama.  So at the end he was not popular on both sides.  This is too bad because we all make mistakes and overall I think he was a good man.

 Watched a program by Lisa Ling on CNN Sunday night about hate crimes against Asian Americans.  The Vincent Chin case was reviewed along with some of the more recent hate crimes against mostly the elderly during the pandemic.  It was a good program.  Interestingly, it also talked about the Chinese company BYD opening up a factory in Lancaster California.  

The main business of BYD is electrical vehicles.  In Lancaster, BYD is making electric buses.  The buses are well made and price is very competitive.  It also brings in many good paying jobs to an area of California that is suffering economically.  By making buses here, BYD is expanding its market.  Seems like a win win for everybody.

But the U.S. government is making rules against companies that are part of the Chinese government.  So BYD may not be able to sell their buses to U.S. cities and states soon.  That would mean the factory in Lancaster probably has to close and jobs lost.  The thing is, the company is listed in the Hong Kong stock exchange and 60% of the stocks is owned by American investors.  So I don't know why the U.S. thinks that it is Chinese government owned.  

Some Congressmen also said that the buses may be used to spy on people.  Who the heck is going to spy on people riding on a metro bus?  I don't think any Congressmen ride the D.C. Metro to work.  BYD also makes batteries for EV.  Tesla may buy from them in the future because its batteries are innovative.  Even now, Tesla buys its batteries from CATL, a Chinese company, for the EV Tesla makes in China.  So are we going to ban Tesla vehicles in the future because there are parts made in China so it maybe used to spy on us?

Vincent Chin was killed because Asians were scapegoated in the 1980s.  Scapegoating is also the reason that many of the elderly and women of Asian descent were killed or injured recently.  Sure, individual criminals did the harming of innocents.  But it is the demonizing of Asians by those with power that increase the scope of the hate.  In Vincent's case, it was the UAW and the Automakers who set the tone.  During the pandemic it was the politicians like Donald Trump who made hating Asians easy.  I don't really care if BYD is excluded from the American market.  But by banning a Chinese company which is competing fairly and is actually helping Americans send a message that all thing Chinese are bad.  This type of propaganda is dangerous for all Asian Americans.

 Dr. Sanjay Gupta is one of my heroes.  He is a neurosurgeon, a journalist and an author.  I have just about finished his book on the brain and found out yesterday he is already having another book out next week.  Does this guy ever sleep?  His new book is about COVID called World War C.  I am sure it will be good but I am not sure I want to read it since I have been reading about this disease and the pandemic a lot lately.  As he is making his round promoting his book on CNN and other places, I do have something I disagree with him.

Gupta was asked whether he thinks COVID was leaked from the Wuhan Lab.  He said as a scientist he believes that most likely it was from nature and not leaked from a lab.  But he went on and said that it bothers him that if it is not leaked, why doesn't China make it transparent to the rest of the world?  He pointed out that a small pox outbreak had happened in a UK lab and they admitted to it at that time.  I agree with transparency, but how do you prove a negative?

China let the WHO into the lab.  They did not find any evidence.  But could they have hidden any evidence or erased them?  Yes, of course they could have.  But if there was no leak, how do they prove that there was no leak?  It is like if I accuse you of murder but you must prove to me that you did not commit it.  You may have an alibi but if I don't believe your alibi, what can you do?  In this case, what evidence can China come up with that show there was no leak?  Even if they have evidence, the Western media would not buy it anyway.

That is why China tries to deflect by calling on the U.S. to be transparent about the shutting down of Fort Detrick lab in the U.S. during 2019.  What was leaked there, China wanted to know.  Of course, the U.S. is not going to allow WHO to go into Fort Detrick to investigate due to national security concerns.  So China said that they have national security concerns as well.  So there is no apparent resolution in this and that is why when Biden asked the CIA to come up with the answer in a few weeks, it was laughable.

On a lighter note, the Dodgers finished with the second best record in baseball but has to play a wild card game against a surging Cardinals team.  If they win, they get the Giants who has the best record. So one of the top two teams in baseball will be out after the division round.  Does not seem fair, but it is what it is.  They had an abundance of starting pitchers before the season but with all the injuries, I am sure how far they can go anyways.  Kershaw is out again so Urias with have to start and can't be used in big relief situations like last year.  So will see.  The Giants earned the division title though.  They just played great, way above expectations.