Our nasty Egyptian ally, &c.

General Sisi, George W. Bush, Donald Trump, Abraham Lincoln, the Detroit Pistons, and more

T here was a man named Shady Habash. He was an Egyptian filmmaker. In 2018, he directed a music video that made fun of his country’s strongman, General Sisi. He was arrested and imprisoned. For two years, he was held in a maximum-security prison, without trial. He is now dead at 24.

To read about this case, consult Declan Walsh in the New York Times, here. Let me quote an interesting paragraph, just as an aside:

Mr. el-Sisi released 4,000 prisoners last month, in a traditional gesture of clemency for Sinai Liberation Day, marking Israel’s withdrawal from Sinai in 1982. But those released were convicted criminals, and political prisoners were not included.

“Where’s my favorite dictator?” said President Trump when he was looking for Sisi at a meeting in France last August. The next month, he and Sisi sat together at the United Nations. Trump said, “It’s an honor to be with my friend. And he is a real leader.”

A reporter asked Trump, “Are you worried about demonstrators in Egypt who have been calling for President el-Sisi to go?” Trump answered, “No, I guess everybody has demonstrations. Even your best friend in the whole world, President Obama, he had a lot of demonstrations. No, I’m not concerned with it. Egypt has a great leader.”

The U.S. alliance with Egypt is necessary, for strategic reasons. We give that government about $1.5 billion in aid every year. But Americans should be under no illusion as to the nature of that regime, and of Sisi. We should also remember, from time to time, what we have occasionally called “American values.”

Shady Habash doesn’t mean much to the big guys of the world. Irritants like him are crushed like bugs. But they mean something to God, and ought to mean a little something to us, too.

• As you may know, George W. Bush released a statement on the current crisis — the coronavirus — in the form of a video. See it here.

I would like to quote from the end. Bush said,

In this time of testing, we need to remember a few things. First, let us remember we have faced times of testing before. Following 9-11, I saw a great nation rise as one to honor the brave, to grieve with the grieving, and to embrace unavoidable new duties . . .

Second, let us remember that empathy and simple kindness are essential, powerful tools of national recovery. Even at an appropriate social distance, we can find ways to be present in the lives of others: to ease their anxiety and share their burdens.

Third, let’s remember that the suffering we experience as a nation does not fall evenly. In the days to come, it will be especially important to care in practical ways for the elderly, the ill, and the unemployed.

Finally, let us remember how small our differences are in the face of this shared threat. In the final analysis, we are not partisan combatants, we are human beings, equally vulnerable and equally wonderful in the sight of God. We rise or fall together, and we are determined to rise.

This statement did not sit well with all — even as George W. Bush doesn’t. On Twitter, I saw a lot of sputtering from the Left. I also saw President Trump:

.@PeteHegseth “Oh bye the way, I appreciate the message from former President Bush, but where was he during Impeachment calling for putting partisanship aside.” @foxandfriends He was nowhere to be found in speaking up against the greatest Hoax in American history!

• Kim Jong-un, the North Korean dictator, is apparently not dead. There was speculation about this, for many days. Our president tweeted, “I, for one, am glad to see he is back, and well!”

Have you ever noticed that our president speaks more tenderly — even admiringly — about Kim, Sisi, Erdogan, and so on than he ever would about George W. Bush, John McCain, or Mitt Romney? Or than he ever would about Angela Merkel, Justin Trudeau, and other democratic leaders now in office?

Curious.

• He had a good word for Abraham Lincoln, which was nice. A fan of Trump’s tweeted, “Trump has done more for Blacks than all the other Presidents combined!” Trump answered, “So true, although Honest Abe wasn’t bad. Thank you!”

Modest.

• “. . . we can not dedicate — we can not consecrate — we can not hallow — this ground.” Lincoln was speaking about the Gettysburg battlefield and cemetery. I should not hallow the ground of the Lincoln Memorial, but I kind of do. As longtime readers will know, this is my favorite spot in America, from a patriotic or national point of view.

(Some of my nearest and dearest disagree with me strongly about the memorial. We can have that discussion another time. In brief, they think the memorial is too grand, too royal. In my view, the republican words etched on the walls more than make up for any of that.)

As you may have seen, Trump used the Lincoln Memorial for a Fox News thing. I mean, he, and they, used the inside of it. I found this a bit of a profanation, frankly. More frankly yet: I was sickened by it. And rest assured, I would not like it if a president I loved — Reagan, say — exploited that setting in that way.

If you were president, would you do it?

One more question to ponder: What would Republicans and conservatives in general have said if Obama had done it? (We don’t have to ponder that long, do we?)

• I’m going to quote one more tweet from President Trump, then make a comment about it. Here is the president, talking about Nicolle Wallace, a former politico (George W. Bush, John McCain) and current TV host and commentator:

She was thrown off The View like a dog, Zero T.V. Personas. Now Wallace is a 3rd rate lapdog for Fake News MSDNC (Concast). Doesn’t have what it takes!

Among my colleagues and friends are people who would never talk this way themselves — but get a kick out of it when Trump does. They chuckle appreciatively. They may shake their head, but they chuckle appreciatively when they do it.

They remind me of an indulgent parent, who loves his wayward and colorful child, and who may love him all the more when he acts up.

I also think of Homer Simpson, reading the paper: “Heh heh heh. That crazy Marmaduke.”

One more from Homer, also reading the paper: “Ah, Andy Capp, you wife-beating drunk.”

• Have you been watching The Last Dance, the documentary about the Chicago Bulls of the 1990s — i.e., the Michael Jordan Bulls? Enthralling. Positively enthralling. I have my criticisms, but I am glued to every minute.

The first six episodes have been aired; there are four more to go.

I wrote a little about The Last Dance in my previous Impromptus. I would like to write a little more, and specifically about the Detroit Pistons of the “Bad Boys” era (roughly 1987-92). They have come up in The Last Dance, and not entirely fairly, in my opinion.

Plus, some of my friends were giving me grief about the Pistons on Twitter: saying they were a bunch of goons, basically, with Bill Laimbeer the worst of them.

Have I mentioned that I am from Michigan — southeastern Michigan, within shouting distance of Detroit — and that I am a die-hard Piston?

Here’s my rap (short version):

I will not defend the indefensible. Sometimes we (the Pistons) played too rough — even dirty. We weren’t called the “Bad Boys” for nothing. But others in the NBA were not exactly angels. And mainly we played good, physical basketball, heavy on the defense.

Moreover, all of our games were reffed, you know. And whistles blew each way.

I will certainly not defend our refusal to shake hands with the Bulls at the end of the 1991 Eastern Conference finals. (This is an issue in The Last Dance.) Bush League. The Celtics had done it to us, but so what? I despise bad sportsmanship.

And yet and yet . . .

It is wrong to portray these Pistons as a bunch of goons. They went to the Finals three years in a row. We won two of those championships. We dethroned the Magic-Kareem Lakers, and we dethroned the Bird Celtics. That is not the work of goons.

Isiah Thomas, Joe Dumars, Dennis Rodman, John Salley, Adrian Dantley, Vinnie Johnson, et al. — they were athletes, every one of them. Remarkable athletes. Four of those guys are in the Hall of Fame. So is our coach, Chuck Daly (who was selected as the coach of the “Dream Team” at the 1992 Olympics in Barcelona).

You don’t go to the NBA Finals three years in a row and win two championships in a row without being a great team.

Now, Laimbeer, specifically. Again, I won’t defend the indefensible. I know that he sometimes played dirty. I didn’t like it then, and I like it less now. But remember this as well:

He was one of the greatest rebounders of all time. He led the NBA in rebounds one year — not a rec league, not a college conference, but the NBA. He was one of the top free-throw shooters of his time. He rained in threes before it was cool for centers to do so. Four times, he was an All Star. He was instrumental to the Pistons championships.

Did he have a goonish side? I’m afraid so. But he was a lot more than a goon, as the record shows.

Have I thrown up the excuses of a sports partisan? Well, maybe. But I hope you will find some validity therein . . .

• In a park over the weekend, I overheard one guy talking to another. “I have hay fever, so I’ve been sneezing. And people look at me like I’m a serial killer.”

• I hope and trust that the barbers will do a great business when we get going again. Has America ever been this shaggy? Since, like, 1974?

• The streets of New York are pretty empty. On Sunday, I saw something that I had not seen in my 20-plus years of living here: a father playing catch with his son, in the middle of the street. (I’m talkin’ baseball.) As though it were 1937!

The current situation is horrid, but that little scene was kind of cool, I must admit.

Bless you, my friends. Later on.

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