Cat Show 10/9/2020
VG: So we have Trump’s miraculous recovery; the vision of the fly on Mike Pence’s head – a clear sign of him being anointed; Kamala’s superior smirk; and Michigan hicks trying to abduct the next great hope of the Democratic party. What an ominous week it was in the US! The rest of the world is not doing much better, though. Violence, wars, bombing of the civilians and the smell of genocide is in the air; fake-NATO-appointed-Guaidos trying to hijack the power in their countries; Erdogan flexing his Ottoman muscle, while the democratically elected governments of the West are not to be bothered. They all are fighting Covid, thank you very much. Unless they are fighting Russian interference.
ALICE: Only ignorant people can underestimate the two double threats that are facing humanity today: the virus of Covid and the virus of hatred, racism and intolerance. Maybe climate as well. In any case, what is important is to focus on what Republicans failed to do. They encourage white racists, they pooh-pooh the virus, they ignore the Russian threat to our democracy. Look at what republicans are NOT doing, and go for it — these are the most pressing issues of the day. I would push it even further. Pence was not fighting the fly that landed on his head. That’s a blatant neglect of the most pressing human needs. Flies are the nuisance that ruins people’s lives. I always hunt and catch flies when I see them. As opposed to this lazy Trump-symp, Hobbs, who does not even move his whisker in the direction of a fly landing on his back.
HOBBS: You said it, Alice. Democrats and other virtue-signaling politicians do not stand for anything. All they want is to challenge the other party. They pretend to be the party of science, education, progress, and what have you. They always have a couple of scientists and other “experts” who provide the most sophisticated justification of the most misguided policies. For how long the tobacco industry flourished in the Democratically controlled states, yet, the opinions of doctors and scientists were ignored. Now we have fracking and other abuses of the earth. What about the car industries? Where are the scientists who’ve been arguing for years for public medicine, public transportation, for the overhaul of our cities and things of that nature? These scientists are ignored, so that Kamala can triumphantly declare that Joe Biden supports fracking. But out of the blue – on Covid —we all became scientists. We all talk about false positives, true negatives, and asymptomatic danger, which reminds me of the witchhunts of the days bygone: “She looks like a nice woman, but truly she is a witch. She is simply asymptomatic. Let’s burn her.” That instrumental and pragmatic use of scientific facts is called scientism. In England, they used Malthus and Darwin to squeeze Irish out of existence. Now they are using virus fear-mongering to distract people from the real burning issues of the day. All in the name of science and progress, mind you.
VG: You are both right to refer to and criticize the vice presidential debate. What it revealed in very clear terms is the paucity of the ideas in both parties. The presidential debate was obfuscating since you can’t really figure out anything in a bar brawl. You don’t know what the fighting parties stand for. While here, it became blatantly obvious. Each candidate tried to air the party’s platform, and the picture wasn’t pretty. There was nothing there there. Tired talk about taxes, or Russians, Chinese, or silly sloganeering about the vaccines. One hoped to see that the Deep State – which these Vices are supposed to represent - -at least has something up its sleeve. I saw nothing but greed, stupid smirks, and empty suits, that can’t even catch a fly. The only thing I kept on thinking while watching this debate was Pope’s Dunciad:
Religion blushing veils her sacred fires,
And unawares Morality expires.
Nor public flame, nor private, dares to shine;
Nor human spark is left, nor glimpse divine!
Lo! thy dread empire, Chaos! is restored;
Light dies before thy uncreating word:
Thy hand, great Anarch! lets the curtain fall;
And universal darkness buries all.
HOBBS: I am glad you mentioned Pope. I was thinking about him the other day. He has this line that perfectly well describes all of the today’s progressives, all those starry eyes idealists who are so much angered with obnoxious autocratic leaders that they are willing to resort to the most unsavory practices and alliances just to beat their opponent. If this is not a description of today’s Opposition Parties, I don’t know what is: “To aid our cause, if Heav'n thou can'st not bend, Hell thou shalt move.”
ALICE: Oh, look how smart you both are. Quoting Pope, and looking like wits among dunces. Except I am not a dunce. I read NYT. I listen to NPR. I follow the best and the brightest on Twitter. All I see from you is negativism and mockery. And I know what drives it. The fear of losing. Once this season of hurricanes and viruses and the reign of Trump and Mitch McConnell is over, the United States would resume its righteous role as the leader of the Free World. You just wait and see. We’ll introduce the full censorship over internet so that the fake news and the right wing propaganda wouldn’t be diseminated. We’ll lock up all the deplorables and other domestic terrorists. We’ll police the police. We’ll introduce the most human and the most exceptional, I would say, motherly tyranny, since the world can be saved only by a female touch. Or shall I say, Greta’s touch. With Gretchen Whitmer in charge of domestic policy, Greta Thunberg in charge of climate, and Greta (former Hillary) Clinton in charge of foreign policy, the world would soon look as pretty as Greta Garbo.
HOBBS: And then you’ll denounce us and demand to be called Greta instead of Alice – which you’ll dismiss as “the pernicious name that perpetuates the rule of obnoxious white men and black cats.” I am going to tear you apart first… (mad chase unfolds and a few vases, lamps and plates are broken).
