Cat Show 11/27/2020
VG: So now, once you’ve stuffed yourself on all sorts of juicy leftovers from the yesterday’s Thanksgiving feast, it is time to earn your keep. I want to hear the most insightful, intelligent, humorous and moderately cynical comments. And they have to contain at least 20% more truth than you hear from the mass media.
HOBBS: 20%? On Black Friday? We should go for at least 50%. Even Alice delivers 20% more truth than NPR on any day. Simply because she didn’t attend a prestigious college where she’s been forced to practice virtue signaling, wokism, snow-flaking, canceling, safe-space defense, and all other per-requisites for the journalism degree.
ALICE: Well, that’s simple. You want to discuss the truth, just talk about something that happened 20-30 years ago. Journalists and politicians are falling heads over heals to report on some old atrocities. Like the murderous behavior of some elite Australian soldiers in Afghanistan, when 25 soldiers practiced the fine art of killing on Afghan civilians. Killing 39 of them.
HOBBS: Good point, these reports do contain at least 75% of truth. Still, we don’t hear why Australians were in Afghanistan to begin with. Looking for some lost tribe of kangaroos? Teaching locals how to dance with Matilda? Not sure there are a lot of Matildas or kangaroos in Afghanistan. And did US ever apologize for dragging thousand of soldiers from all over the world to practice their killing skills on some clueless Afghans?
VG: That’s why the mass media had learned not to talk about some distant goals, or major tendencies and movements. People need to keep their eyes on something concrete and immediate. Russian stealing the election, Fascist in power, covid around the corner, vaccine in the pocket. These are the concrete things that the audience consumes, then forgets and moves to another conspiracy theory thrown its way by another ‘reputable’ outfit.
ALICE: Talking about concrete and immediate. Here is a truthful fact for you. Yesterday, during the dinner, I felt totally elated. So what if there were very few guests. I felt the house was filled by Joe Biden and Kamala Harris, and Obamas and all those progressives that suffered so badly during the last four years of pure fascism unleashed upon these shores by some evil, greedy and utterly un-American force. So my thanksgivings were very genuine and truthful yesterday.
VG: But you can’t deny that the general mood of the country is not that elated. Endless amount of restrictions and interdictions. Endless moving of the finishing line. People are exhausted, while the joy that politicians promise continues to hide beyond horizon.
HOBBS: You, Vladimir, mentioned “major tendencies and movements.” One major tendency is clear. Trump – who in his Queens’ bully’s chutspah — thought that he is milking the system, was played by it like a sucker. There is this wonderful episode in Sopranos. Probably the show’s greatest. About this naïve cousin of Tony who wants to break out of his Mafioso identity, and decides to write the story of his life and sell the script to Hollywood. So all the Hollywood agents dine, charm, and sleep with him, milk him to the hilt for all his stories and methods, but then drop him and disappear into sunset, while taking the credit for the script. In comparison with Hollywood sharks, poor Chris Soprano was just a baby seal.
VG: Are you trying to say, that Trump was milked by liberal media to sell their horror stories to the public, milked by the politicians who claimed their “progressive credentials” by simply mocking or attacking Trump, milked by conservatives who used him to stock Supreme Court with their darlings, and then lost all the interest in Trump; milked by the rich who benefited from his tax codes, and milked by the poor who used him as a giant finger to the coastal elites? There must have been someone who genuinely loved him? Netanyahu maybe? Or Saudis?
ALICE: Well, maybe we’ll learn something about it in thirty years. Maybe some security agent with whom their share their hamburgers and discussed the latest football game? I know that Hobbs feels somewhat nostalgic for Trump. Bullies always share certain respect for each other, but I am sure that the country and the world had sighed a giant sigh of relieve when Trump finally agreed to fold his operation. Some progressives might remain doubtful, but we are finally resuming our manifest destiny of leading the free world.
HOBBS: Leading the free world where? Into a glorious future of the brutal capitalism with a human mask mounted for decoration?
ALICE: Masks are not just for decorations. We know they work. Look at Biden. He wore his mask all the time, and won the election. His supporters were masks all their time and they won. That’s what the gods of capitalism wants us to do. Wear the masks of nice caring loving people. These masks save and protect. Trump, on the other hand, when he took his mask off, had shown everyone the ugly face of American greed, violence, and imperialism, and that’s unacceptable. The gods of corporate capitalism had cast him down for this hubris.
VG: Wow. Look at Alice. Finally, she gave up on her myopic short-termism promoted by NPR, and decided to take a long panoramic view inspired by Greek tragedy.
HOBBS: Well, the gods of corporate capitalism are not real authorities. They are Chris Sopranos, small time crooks who know when to smile and when to hit. They can muscle out Trump, but not sure they can handle true movements of history. Brezhnevs of this world can imagine themselves as the captains of the ship, giving orders and throwing rebels over-board. But not sure they can do anything with a real powerful storm. To confront such a storm you need love and devotion of your population, you need trust of the elites, you need your own character, seasoned by resistance and courage. Otherwise, the whole structure folds like a house of cards.
VG: You cats! We started by talking about Thanksgiving, and ended up with some heavy tragic themes. I better give you a slice of salmon from yesterday feast to cheer you up.
