On a real sport; Biden’s shakiness; Ukraine, Russia, and China; Boris Johnson; a different kind of GOP governor; and more
In recent times, many have asked, “What is courtesy? What is the right way to treat one’s fellow man? What is obeying the Golden Rule?” The pandemic has occasioned this general question. In truth, of course, just about everything occasions it.
A reader alerted me to a story from Australia — one I never would have seen. I don’t follow cricket much (meaning, at all).
Australia beat England in a big match (if “match” is the word). There was a big celebration in the locker room (if “locker room” is the word). The Aussies were assembled for a team photo, getting ready to pop champagne bottles.
One player, however, was aloof from the team. Usman Khawaja was standing in a corner. Born in Pakistan, he emigrated with his family to Australia when he was five. “His religion doesn’t allow him to indulge in such celebrations,” as a news report said.
The captain of the Aussie team is Pat Cummins. He took notice of Khawaja’s distance and asked the other players to hold off — to put the champagne away. Then he summoned Khawaja over, to take part in the team photo. Cummins indicated that Khawaja should sit next to him, in the middle of the front row. Khawaja raced over and joined the team, big smile on his face.
After the photo was snapped, the team at large proceeded with the champagne celebration.
The video of this scene has gone viral, apparently. People appreciate the captain’s accommodation of his teammate. It’s a small thing — but also a big thing.
I thought of Shaquille O’Neal, the NBA great. In an interview a few years ago, he talked about Mark Madsen, a long-ago teammate of his. Madsen “was the purest NBA guy I’ve ever met,” said Shaq. “He really was. I had to protect that. I don’t know much about Mormons or their religion. But . . .”
Shaq explained: “Most rookies, when they come in, they go crazy. Including me.” But “Mark was none of that.” There were “twelve guys on the team, including Mark. Eleven guys are doing what guys with money do, and there’s one guy who’s not.” Shaq took it upon himself to shield this odd man out from various group scenes and pressures.
There’s a big man, in more than one sense.
• Following President Biden’s press conference two days ago, John Bolton issued a tweet: “Does Biden understand his own Ukraine policy? He doesn’t know what will happen if Russia makes a ‘minor’ incursion into Ukraine? This is an engraved invitation for Putin.” Biden says goofy things, always has. He commits gaffes. This doesn’t matter much, when it comes to domestic affairs. But on the world stage — it matters a lot.
• During the Democratic primaries of the 2020 cycle — particularly after the debates — I wrote a fair amount about Biden’s shakiness. I will not go over that same ground, here and now. But let me recall a New Republic cover that appeared right after President Reagan’s second inauguration in 1985. The cover showed Reagan with his head thrown back, laughing. The tagline was, “Is He All There?” The article was by Carl Bernstein.
Boy, I burned, as a raging Reaganite. But people had a right to ask, I suppose.
• The Kremlin keeps selling the same rug, over and over. They did it in Soviet days; they’re doing it now. “We feel encircled! The Western wolf is at our door. Oh, our security fears!” All of this is nonsense, of course — virtually comic. The Kremlin wants to distract Russians from the big problems besetting Russians.
Over and over, the Kremlin sells this rug — and there are always gullible Westerners to buy it. Generation after generation. Pathetic.
Vladimir Bukovsky, the great dissident and writer, was acid on this subject when I talked with him three years ago (not long before his death). I will quote from my write-up:
Putin is a Soviet man, according to Bukovsky — “a product of the system.” The Russian president did not spend all those years in the KGB for nothing. “Everything that comes from him has a birthmark on it,” says Bukovsky: a Soviet birthmark.
In the days of the USSR, he says, Soviet leaders would always talk about “encirclement”: “capitalist encirclement.” The Soviet Union was the first state in history for the workers and the peasants, and the capitalists were jealous and resentful, so they were “encircling” the Soviet Union.
Putin pulls the same trick, says Bukovsky, using slightly different language, but sticking with “encirclement.” As Kremlin propaganda has it, the West is always plotting against Russia, ever hostile. In reality, says Bukovsky, the West doesn’t give a damn about Russia. He knows this, having lived in the West for more than 40 years.
But this propaganda about the West keeps the masses in line, distracting them from the many, Russian-made ills around them.
• Sometime last summer, I think, a Ukrainian intellectual told me something like the following:
“You Americans want to ‘pivot to China.’ You think that Russia and China are unrelated — that Russia is small beer while China is major. What you don’t realize is that China is watching Russia, to see what can be gotten away with. To see what the mettle of the West is.”
The Ukrainian, getting into the mindset of a government such as China’s, continued:
“What if you shot down a civilian airliner? What if you invaded a neighboring country? What if you annexed territory? What if you interfered in American and European elections? What if you launched cyberattacks? What would happen? Anything? How would the West respond? At all?”
I thought of this conversation when seeing a headline and subheading from The Atlantic: “China Is Watching Ukraine With a Lot of Interest: Biden’s handling of Putin may tell Xi Jinping how resolutely the U.S. would defend Taiwan.” (Article here.) That is certainly the case.
People don’t understand the connectedness of things. That is a persistent problem, a persistent blind spot. “Remember the old skeleton song,” a U.S. official said to me some years ago. “‘The knee bone’s connected to the thigh bone. The thigh bone’s connected to the hip bone.’”
Here’s a bit of news from TASS, by the way: “Russia, Iran, China to hold joint naval maneuvers.” (Article here.) How do you like that trio?
• David Davis has unleashed Leo Amery on Boris Johnson. Or rather, he has unleashed Cromwell, famously quoted by Amery: “You have sat too long here for any good you have been doing. Depart, I say, and let us have done with you. In the name of God, go!” Read about it here.
Davis is a veteran Conservative, a former chairman of the party, for example. I think the tale of Boris is fairly simple: You can cover things with intelligence, wit, and charm — and no one has more of those qualities than BoJo — for only so long. There comes a time when a speck of truth-telling is demanded.
Maybe Boris will return to column-writing. No one did it better.
• The latest Trump rally had the usual elements: the hats and flags; the MyPillow guy; the coming “storm”; the lies. “The real insurrection took place on Election Day,” said Trump. But I learned something from the rally: There is a Florence, Ariz. (which is where the rally was held). South Carolina, I knew about. Tuscany, I knew about. But Arizona?
Yes. When I brought up this subject on Twitter, others informed me about the Florences in their own states. Come to find out: About half of our 50 states have a Florence.
Then there is Florence Johnston, played by the great Marla Gibbs, of sitcom fame.
• Food for thought, maybe. Thomas Moore, the Irish poet, ought to be a bigger deal than he is. I mean, he should play a larger role in the public consciousness. What a master. Maybe his fame is curtailed by the existence of Thomas More, as in “Sir,” the man for all seasons? Is “Thomas Moore” confusing?
I don’t know.
• William Safire once quipped, “I know how to spell ‘Sununu.’ I just don’t know when to stop.” Chris Sununu, son of John, is the governor of New Hampshire. Josh Kraushaar, of National Journal, has conducted a very interesting interview of him: here.
Over the last several months, I’ve asked the question, What do you consider conservative? The governors of Florida and Texas — DeSantis and Abbott — are heroes on the right. In part, they are heroes because they have prohibited private enterprises from requiring vaccination in a pandemic. Is that “conservative”? Something else?
Kraushaar writes that Governor Sununu “has chosen a classically conservative path: Let local governments, individual businesses, and school districts choose the best path for themselves.” Sununu himself says, “There are a lot of things I want businesses to do, but that doesn’t mean I pass a law and force them to do it. It’s reactionary.”
Interesting guy — and maybe a throwback of a Republican.
• Sara Gibbs is a comedy writer in Britain. She slew with this tweet: “When I was younger I also blamed Jewish people for all my problems and thought they were part of a conspiracy to control and ruin my life. Turns out they were just being good parents.”
• End on a photo? Okay. Here is a cruise ship, sailing along the Hudson River, passing the golf range, headed into New York Harbor, and, from there, into the world beyond. Stately and well-nigh exciting.
Have a good weekend, my friends. Catch you later.
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