Editor's Picks- Afghanistan, Vaccine Passports, and Not the End of Andrew Cuomo
The Nadir of American Strength and Influence
Of course most of the current news cycle has been consumed by the barbaric bedlam going on in Afghanistan, where the American military presence has been reduced to one small airfield in Kabul. While other nations such as Britain and France our sending out armed troops to safely collect and transport their citizens out of the country, Americans who are scattered about the country are stranded and are now at the mercy of the Taliban. The Biden administration is not only unable to reach those people, but they don’t even know how many of them there are still left in the country, and where exactly they are.
The scope of this colossal failure of our government to implement their own foreign policy, is both embarrassing and dangerous. The rest of the hostile world will see our country’s failure in Afghanistan as a sign of the nadir of American strength and influence, and will be tempted to fill in the gaps of our shrinking presence in the world. As Francis P. Sempa over at the American Thinker has written, “Some media stories have noted the eerie parallels of our ignominious withdrawals from Saigon and Kabul. But the more fundamental parallel is the failure of our elites and our ruling class in both instances.”
Moreover, at the same site, Christopher Skeet has sardonically pointed out that for Biden’s leftist handlers, who are obviously running the show right now, the failure in Afghanistan is actually a fulfillment of their ideological worldview in which they think, “America is not only evil but irredeemably so. Hence, any policy, be it foreign or domestic, that weakens our nation-state should be pursued, the goal being that the nation-state will eventually corrode to the point of collapse.” Needless to say, that both at home and abroad, everything is going according to some “plan” where America is being popped out of the top rail.
The Trial Run is Over, Vaccine Passports are Here
On August 17th Mayor Bill de Blasio signed an executive order which mandates that all New Yorkers in all five boroughs must now show proof of vaccination before entering any public place. Those wishing to enter an establishment must show a vaccine card, use the NYC Covid Safe App, or the Excelsior pass, as well as show a valid ID. Businesses that refuse to enforce this order could face fines from $1,000-$5,000.
It is interesting to note that all last year, conspiracy-minded individuals thought that last years lockdowns were a “plan-demic” and a kind of trial run for the gradual eroding of our civil liberties. Well as the now famous Tweet said, “What's the difference between a conspiracy theory and the truth? About 6-12 months.” Vaccine passports are a reality in New York, and dare we say that their use is the new trial run for their use nationwide.
However, as Priscilla DeGregory and Julia Marsh over at the New York Post have noted, not everyone is on board, as some New York restaurant owners are suing the city because of the arbitrary way the law is written and applied. For instance, the executive order allows for zero exemptions for medical or religious reasons. This means that “those who’ve already gotten the virus; those who are allergic to ingredients in the vaccine; those who have pre-existing conditions that make getting the vaccine risky (such as pregnant women, people undergoing cancer treatment, or who are in anyway immuno-compromised); and those whose religious beliefs stop them from getting it” will be barred from entering public places. Meanwhile, the law does make exemptions for “church potlucks, community centers, office buildings, house parties (even if they're catered) and people ducking in somewhere to pick up food or use the bathroom” as well as athletes, musicians, and their support staff who are playing or performing at an indoor venue.
The first thing that comes to mind is, as has been noted, “black Americans are the least vaccinated racial group in the city, with only 31 percent of eligible citizens fully vaccinated and 35 percent having received at least one dose.” This means, that we could start to see black Americans being denied entrance to public places. Aside, from the optics of such a possibility, the real questions should be why is it racist to ask for an ID to vote, but not to check someone’s vaccine status? Also, are we really getting to the point where were are physically segregating people up in public? And lastly, if you have a medical condition that prevents you from getting vaccinated, wouldn’t a law like the ADA prevent businesses from discriminating against someone who is unvaccinated for legitimate medical reasons?
Goodbye to All That...Well Actually Not All of It
And finally, Andrew Cuomo gave his farewell address as governor of New York, still defiant and offering the standard political non-apology-apology to those he harassed and hurt, while maintaining that in the end he is the real victim, as he blathered, “I am a fighter, and my instinct is to fight this, because it is unfair and unjust in my mind.” Lieutenant Governor Kathy Hochul will take his place and thus by default (but mostly through Cuomo’s fault) will become New York’s first female governor.
His resignation comes after a number of women came forward and accused the former-governor of sexual harassment and even assault, which resulted in an investigation by New York Attorney General Letitia James. The investigation produced a damning report that showed, according to the Epoch Times, that “Cuomo broke federal and state laws by kissing, groping, or making unwelcome sexual remarks to at least 11 women, and by retaliating against at least one woman who complained by leaking her private records to the press, for years of abuse, harassment, and even assault.”
It is an a truly a sign of our clown world times that it was the serial sexual abuse of women, and not his deadly mishandling of the Covid cases in New York during the past year that turned a “MeToo” moment into a “now you” power play to oust him from his office. Obviously both incidences are examples of egregious behavior, but are we not allowed a sense of perspective anymore, with loss of life taking precedence? To be fair, the matter of Cuomo's Covid deaths has been investigated by New York state lawmakers, as to “why the Cuomo administration withheld data showing the true extent of nursing home deaths from COVID-19, a matter also being examined by federal prosecutors”, but no one at this point really believes he will be held accountable for the nursing home deaths that happened because of the decisions he made.
Not only is this sad state of affairs emblematic of the overall decline in the effectiveness in our public institutions and the trust ordinary people have in them, but in one of those incidences of art imitating life, it reminds me of a scene from season five of the HBO show The Wire. If you want to see all of the conniving and political machinations that occur in America’s major cities as they endeavor to manage their decline, wonderfully acted out, I cannot recommend the series enough as it was written by writers who had first-hand knowledge of the crime and corruption in the city of Baltimore.
The scene involves the corrupt fictional Senator “Clay Davis” as he is finally being indicted for his crimes. Davis is in a meeting with a member of Baltimore's mayor’s staff Nerese Campbell, and is upset that only his crooked dealings are being revealed, and he is being asked to be the one to do the public “perp walk” while everyone else scurries out of the limelight.
Enraged he yells, “You can tell all of them...all them graspin’ b****es who we put in every city department, you tell every last one, that I do not fall alone! You think I’m gonna be a scapegoat for the whole damn machine.”
Campbell replies that “it is what it is” and Clay yells that “You better hope not or it ain’t gonna end with Clay Davis.”
Fed up with his tantrum, Campbell shouts back,
“Think about what you’re sayin’ here. You can have yourself a pity-party; talk all kind s*** to some prosecutor. You know where you’ll be then? Out in the damn cold. No connections, no allies, nowhere to hang your hat in this damn town. Or you carry this for all of us, carry it as far as you can. And if the worst happens, and they take your seat, you go away for a year or so to some minimum-security summer camp, then so what? You’ll still come home to a town that still knows your name...prosecutors come and prosecutors go, but win or lose, you’re still gonna be back around before we know it.”
That exchange, albeit in a fictional show, is in a nutshell, what I think about Cuomo’s resignation. He is being pushed out not so much because of his corruption, but only because his actions have risked the smooth workings of the political machine that is as old as Tammany Hall. For that he must be sacrificed, as in their thinking it is better that one man be forced to step aside rather than risk exposing all of New York’s gross bureaucratic mismanagement to further scrutiny. Besides, even though Cuomo has said he has no future plans to run for another political office, some newscasters who cannot hide their admiration for him or his politics, have surmised that he will run again for some political office in his life time. And why not? In due time, people will forget about his misdeeds and will only remember that he was good at getting them what they wanted. For a man whose decisions directly lead to the deaths of thousands elderly Covid patients, it is fitting to say that, like the Terminator, he will be back.
Photo Credit- sure.do