It was imagined to be a welcome break from serving because the Biden administration’s stooge. Instead of being the mascot for the Biden administration’s busted border coverage, Kamala Harris would get a nice little journey to Singapore and Vietnam, to shore up her international coverage expertise simply in case, God forbid, the Democratic celebration has to truly rally behind her as president.
But as a substitute of gaining expertise, Harris has to fret about US diplomats being shot with a laser beam, or one thing.
Yes, that’s proper, the newest incident of Kamala’s ill-starred vice presidency is an outbreak of Havana syndrome. US State Department officers introduced that it was investigating a ‘potential anomalous well being incident’ in Hanoi, the popular euphemism for the mysterious illness.
Havana syndrome has been all the fad within the US diplomatic corps for the previous 4 years. The illness first appeared in Cuba, the place diplomats complained first of listening to loud sounds, adopted by inexplicable nausea, dizziness, strain across the head and extra. Some diplomats left their posts early for therapy within the United States. Some allegedly suffered mind harm. Since the origin in Cuba, diplomats have reported related illnesses in China, Russia, Germany and even Austria. Through sympathetic shops like NBC News, officers have promoted the narrative that US diplomats are being focused with mysterious invisible ray-guns pointed by a nefarious international energy. Which one? Oh, in all probability Russia. Yep. Always these sneaky Russians.
It wasn’t imagined to go like this. Instead of her good breezy journey, Kamala has to deal with America beneath assault. Her arrival in Hanoi was briefly delayed. Professional journalists and suppose tank barnacles fretted about what is likely to be occurring.
Particularly alarming are two potential Havana syndrome incidents within the Washington space, together with one case close to the White House in November.
Administration officers have speculated that Russia could also be concerned, a suggestion Moscow has denied. https://t.co/LEaq1XDCUL
— Jonathan Lemire (@JonLemire) August 25, 2021
Wow: US Embassy in Hanoi says the Vice President’s touring delegation was delayed from departing Singapore as a result of VPs workplace was made conscious of a report of a latest potential anomalous well being incident in Hanoi. Anomalous well being incident is what the USG calls Havana Syndrome. pic.twitter.com/1jqNsQMIeW
— Natasha Bertrand (@NatashaBertrand) August 24, 2021
Have learn nearly each phrase revealed on Havana Syndrome and nonetheless have completely no concept what to make of it.
— Chris Hayes (@chrislhayes) August 24, 2021
This is…fascinating
Harris’s arrival in Hanoi was delayed after the U.S. Embassy in Vietnam mentioned it had detected a “potential anomalous well being incident” within the metropolis, a phrase that Washington makes use of to explain the mysterious Havana Syndrome.https://t.co/cIWerFnvFR
— Henry Rome (@hrome2) August 25, 2021
Well, fret not, as a result of Cockburn is about to blow this story vast open. This isn’t an assault from America’s enemies. This is an assault from inside. It’s a direct assault on America by our personal neurotic skilled class.
Because, and Cockburn hopes you’re all seated and ready for laborious information, the reality is that this: Havana syndrome is pretend.
Seriously, the book has already been written about it. It’s like faculties and coronavirus, the place we’ve identified the precise quantity of hazard (none) for greater than a yr and everyone simply pretends in any other case as a result of being neurotic is extra enjoyable.
Havana syndrome started when one CIA agent in Cuba complained to a different about an odd sound that they have been listening to. Only months later, after the noise had fueled rampant hypothesis among the many operatives, did the annoying sound mutate right into a ‘highly effective beam of high-pitched sound’.
In actuality, the lethal sound beams have been Cuba’s noisy indigenous crickets. But that hardly mattered. Once diplomatic operatives have been primed to fret about mysterious sonic assaults, the reverse placebo impact did the remaining. As Vanity Fair summarized greater than two and a half years in the past:
‘Patient Zero knowledgeable Amb. Jeffrey DeLaurentis, in a telling phrase, that “the rumor mill goes mad”. So a gathering was referred to as, which unfold the phrase even additional. Over the subsequent weeks and months, greater than 80 staffers and their households got here ahead to complain of a dizzying and seemingly unrelated vary of signs: deafness, reminiscence loss, psychological stupor, head ache. Many reported listening to the unusual noise, however they couldn’t appear to agree on what it gave the impression of. One described it as “grinding metallic,” and one other referred to as it a “loud ringing.” Yet one other in contrast it to feeling the “air ‘baffling’ inside a transferring automobile with the home windows partially rolled down.”’
The sound additionally moved round so much. The first 4 complaints all got here from CIA brokers working undercover in Havana, who reported listening to the noise at their houses. But then others claimed that they’d been felled by the mysterious sound whereas staying quickly at Havana lodges, particularly the Hotel Capri and the Hotel Nacional.
From there, Havana syndrome has gone worldwide, all the time hitting diplomats, all the time having a baffling array of syndromes whose solely commonality is that in addition they will manifest in instances of mass hysteria.
Havana syndrome exhibits a lot in frequent with the infamous ‘lengthy COVID’, the sickness (disproportionately felt by these with no constructive COVID exams) that has displaced power fatigue syndrome and fibromyalgia because the all-purpose explanation for dangerous fee-fees amongst these with hypochondria and a heavy dose of hysteria.
Why is it so laborious to consider that America’s diplomats are falling sufferer to mass hysteria? Over the previous 4 years, we simply noticed a whole bunch of skilled professionals purchase fully into the absurd Russian collusion conspiracy idea, which hinged on the concept that Donald Trump was each a secret undetected Russian agent for years on finish but additionally communicated with Vladimir Putin by way of direct messages in his public speeches.
But the very best argument towards sinister Russian power weapons is extra simple. America’s diplomatic and intelligence companies gave us the Afghan debacle, Iraqi weapons of mass destruction, the Libya mess, the autumn of the Shah and so forth, advert infinitum. Left to their very own units and their very own calamitous judgment, they’re positive to trigger one disaster after one other for the United States. So why would America’s enemies need to interrupt them?
America’s enemies aren’t turning into extra Space-Age. America is simply turning into dumber.
