Cat Show 2/5/2021

VG: I feel that we’ve entered some wonderland, some Groundhog Day zone. All the pathetic over-achievers that had failed to learn anything throughout the first two decades of the XXI century, are now back on the central stage again… and again… and again. Like the groundhoggers of the XIX century--the Bourbons-- they managed neither to learn nor forget anything. Meet today’s Bourbons: Clintons, Bidens, Navalnys, Merkels.

HOBBS: Are you referring to Biden’s first Foreign Policy speech and his trip to the glorious State Department, where they all decided to reenact Schwarzenegger’s Terminator, proclaiming that they are back? The speech was a pure regurgitation of the hogwash that State Department had been spewing for years: Russia bad, US good. The other Party is soft on Commies, but Biden won't be. We’ll show them. We’ll be strong, we’ll be diplomatic, we’ll be moral, we’ll take care of domestic issues, we’ll take care of foreign issues. How? Why? What makes Biden think that the same State Department that ostracized and antagonized Russia by meddling in Ukraine, that missed the rise of China, that further destabilized Middle East by bringing wars and misery to millions of people, now, all of the sudden would start demonstrating the miracles of acumen and insight?

ALICE: They will exhibit plenty of acumen and insight, because finally the right people are in charge. People who know what injustice, inequality, and lack of human rights are. Women, minorities, members of LGBT community. They’ve learned their lessons hard, and they are willing to stand for every underdog, or rather under-cat of the world. That’s what makes America so great. We stand for undercats. Ukraine suffered from Russians, we stand with them. Good Germans and Austrians and Poles and Lithuanians and other inadvertent Nazi victims or allies suffered from Soviets, we stand for them. Religious and ethnic and sexual minorities are suffering from Russians and Chinese, we stand for them. Saudis are suffering from Iran, we stand with them too. Israelis are forever suffering from the whole wide world, so we stand with them. Give me any undercat, and don't forget that we cats, like Jews, are perennial victims– and I’ll stand for them as well. Look at all the world tyrants. Have you ever seen Putin with a cat? Only dogs! So I am not surprised with your diatribe, Hobbs. You’ve always been soft on autocrats and tyrants. Look at the way you parrot Vladimir’s views.

VG: Alice, what makes you believe that new leaders wouldn’t have old prejudices, or new prejudices, if you wish. Old Cold Warriors hated Soviets for being Socialists, New Cold Warriors hate Russians for not allowing gay marriage. But the hatred is still the same. The paranoia and projections are still there, even though the different feelings are projected: Russia has millions of bombs and spies; Russia does not make anything and is a gas station masquerading as a country. Whatever it is, it is still a prejudice and failure of self-awareness. That’s why Bill Murray had to re-visit his Groundhog Day again and again. Until he learned something about himself.

HOBBS: That’s a rather optimistic view. Why do you think that American would be given a second chance? With some of their Pentagon leaders talking about Nuclear War with both China and Russia, I am not sure that the second chance is in the making.

ALICE: That’s not the case. The first thing that Biden did was to restore the missile treaty with Russians. So there is sanity among Democrats. And what’s wrong with telling others what they have to do. We’ve been there, we’ve done that, so we have to teach others. We went through the years of racism and homophobia and human rights abuses, and we’ve remedied the situation, thanks to our glorious political leaders and fearless press. So we have to carry the baton. We want to prevent others from their mistakes. That’s why we always support the progressive forces like Navalny, or Zelensky in Ukraine, or current Polish leaders.

HOBBS: Alice, you are losing it. How can Polish leaders who ban abortions be progressive? Or this servant of the virulent nationalists, Zelensky? Or the dudes, like Navalny, who uses ill gained money from one oligarch to expose the ill-gained money of another oligarch?

ALICE: Very simple, and that’s the reason, why Biden went to State Department right away, as opposed to Trump, who wasted the whole year before he realized that he needs to check in. Big wigs of all the Washington Think Tanks -- the ones who have their corner offices in the State Department — have made this Essential, Indispensable, and Exceptional Table of Progressiveness. The table that the liberals from all over the world had to follow. The most progressive rating goes to The Winner of the Annual Washington PC Championship, followed by PC runner-ups from Foreign Countries. These politically correct leaders are followed by the SOBs, but our SOBs, and at the bottom of the scale are the SOBs, but their SOBs. Consequently, Polish and Ukrainian leaders always come off as progressives.

VG: That’s a very good point, Alice. I am glad you are informing us of this. I was wandering why Russian or European liberals scream bloody murder when Navalny is arrested, and say nothing about Assange, why they think it is bad when China closes internet or a TV station, and that it is a giant step of mankind when the US Cyber moguls do the same, or when Ukraine’s former TV star, moonlighting as a president, closes the rival TV stations. You see, Hobbs, we can learn a lot from Alice. The question remains, can she learn anything from us?

ALICE: I don’t need to. I check my standing in the Table of Progressiveness every day. And I am way above you two.