It’s been a while since my last post, and a lot of things have changed.
For now, I will say this: Joe Biden has accomplished one of his goals. We are, at last, united as a people.
Before the election, the left hated America.
Now, I hate America.
More soon…
Over the past few weeks, protests have escalated into violence in several American cities. The protesters and their protests, we are told, are peaceful. We are cautioned by local officials not to overreact to the scattered and inconsequential violence. When they are referring to the violence, they are not talking about vandalism and looting. This is a part of the “peaceful” side.
As we watch (and how can we avoid watching?), we see windows broken, property destroyed and theft in the form of looting all over. Some of us are again shocked by these actions.
The first time we witnessed anything surprising was at the onset of COVID-19 when our neighbors began to hoard toilet paper and several other grocery items. This was all, of course, legal, but nonetheless how many were taken aback by the window it provided into the character of those we live around?
Now we’ve seen unprovoked attacks on the homeless, the elderly, and on unsuspecting pedestrians. Some attacks are so violent that they can’t help but evoke powerful feelings within those of us who are still in possession of our sense of fairness and respect for law and order.
Where will all of this lead?
After having watched the protests the last few days, it is difficult to understand how those that did not participate could come out of it all as anything but cynical. There are those, I suppose, that will believe the best way to get what one wants is to riot, or that somehow what happened to Mr. Floyd justifies the violence.
It is interesting that those that are destroying real estate are being careful as to not damage the booty the loot from inside. Which do they intend as the tribute to Mr. Floyd, the destruction or the theft?
There are no spokesmen. There are, however, many excusers. Most television networks are trying to commend the protesters and filter them from the denunciations directed toward the rioters. Some parents have chosen to bring along their children in order to allow them to share in the “experience.” Some children have “experienced” the feeling of pepper spray in their eyes. But I suppose they, at least, will be able to say, “I was there.”
Perhaps it is unrealistic to assume that after one evening of protest turned ugly, the true protesters elect to intermit — if only for a while.
It is difficult in any downtown area to simply stumble across large blocks of concrete (to break windows) or bottles full of gasoline (to burn buildings down). The destruction was not spontaneous – any more than the raid on the Consulate in Benghazi.
“Every great cause begins as a movement, becomes a business, and eventually degenerate into a racket.”
– Eric Hoffer (1898-1983)
“Some go straight from movement to racket.”
– The Cynic
Perhaps the absence of the Cynic was unwise given the events of the last sixty days; however, there could be no more potent recruiting for the forces of cynicism than those events.
The Cynic observes sometime ago that Fox News and CNN/MSNBC could not both be correct. Their reporting of Trump-Russia collusion was diametrically opposed. As a consequence, those watching one network will have been watching the truth whereas those watching the other will have come away totally misinformed (it was not possible for both to be correct or for both to be incorrect).
It appears that Fox News had the story correct (at least somewhat) and CNN/MSNBC (along with the other major networks) were anxiously and enthusiastically wrong.
“Virtue in distress, and vice in triumph make atheists of mankind.”
– John Dryden (1631-1700)
With the recent death of former NBA commissioner David Stern, the Cynic made the ad-hoc decision to produce a brief treatise on the state of basketball in 2020.
It should first be pointed out that commissioner Stern took over an NBA that had just started a rebound from a state of almost complete public apathy. He left it a healthy, wealthy and growing sports league, with a product that was much different than it was his first day on the job.
The state of basketball is representative of the state of sports in general in 2020. All sports, college and professional, have the same concerns. They can all be summed up in one word: money. Probably the correct concern for the professional ranks since, after all, they are businesses. Colleges, on the other hand, are not. Nevertheless, colleges have bartered their athletic souls to the highest bidders, and the bidders could care less about anything but money.
The Cynic has not opined about impeachment for one reason: it seemed like an open-and-shut case — in the president’s favor.
The president asked Ukraine to investigate the Bidens. The Democrats contend that the request was for the express purpose of securing info on Joe Biden to, in turn, rig the 2020 election. The trigger for the entire House of Representatives investigation was the assertion that the president withheld, or threatened to withhold, aid to Ukraine until such an investigation was commenced.
The president then released a transcript of his conversation which he claims exonerates him. The Democrats, MSNBC (Chris Matthews) and CNN (Jeffrey Toobin) insist, on the other hand, that the transcript condemns the president.
So, after a hurried investigation, the Dems in the House voted two articles of impeachment: obstruction of Congress (really?) and abuse of power.
The Republicans keep yelling for anyone who will listen that the aid was in fact delivered to Ukraine in spite of the conversation, or in American vernacular, “no harm, no foul.”
But this argument by the Republicans seems shallow. It encourages the dismissal of the articles without addressing the alleged transgression. The president’s request to Zelensky to investigate continues to dangle untouched, for any of Trump’s opponents or enemies to point to as evidence of the president’s unfitness to hold the world’s highest office.
Some commentators have recently taken to asserting that the Steele dossier has “not been disproven.”
When I hear this, I think of the statement, “The inside of a watermelon is blue until sliced open.”
From an outsider’s perspective, it looks as though Joe Biden will not be able to sustain a lead far enough into next year to sustain momentum. Obviously, a vacuum would be created in the moderate wing of the Democratic Party if he were to drop out. Proceeding from there leaves us to speculate on who will take his place.
Two possibilities:
First, someone will emerge from within the group of announced candidates. This is difficult because none present as moderate as Biden; in fact, he has been forced to move so far left that he looks agonizingly uncomfortable when he tries to pass off as authentic. He does not seem to have a clear grasp of the left agenda, which is much more important to his campaign than him actually believing his rhetoric.
HOWEVER…watch out for Mayor Pete.
The Cynic sees it has now been over two months since his last post. Accordingly, he apologizes for the radio silence, and promises to try and do better about the frequency of his posting from here on out.
A few random observations on recent events: