by John Walters
Tweet Life People
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Dual Dustin Diamond Departures
One day after we learn of the all-too-early death of Dustin Diamond, whom you know as Screech from Saved By The Bell, Boston Red Sox 2nd baseman Dustin Pedroia announces his retirement.
So, yes, that is dual Dustin diamond departures. Diamond was only 44 and went from spindly pre-pubescent to hulking adult. But he never really ever landed, or particularly needed, future acting gigs.
Pedroia, 35, is an intriguing case. Only 5’9″, he carved out a career where for more than a decade he was the toughest out on a Red Sox team that won two World Series (2007, 2013). Pedroia received a third ring for Boston’s 2018 World Series title but only appeared in three games that season.
Is Pedroia a Hall of Famer? He retires as a Rookie of the year, one-time MVP, with four All-Star appearances. Only 1,805 hits, but 394 doubles. Intriguingly, at least to me, he retires a .299 hitter, but if not for 31 total plate appearances in 2018 and 2019, when still trying to recover from knee surgery, in which he went 3 for 31, he’d technically be a .300 hitter. For someone as competitive as Pedroia was, and that’s what he was, a complete red ass on the diamond, that has to smart.
It was too bad that Pedroia got injured when still in his prime. His career came to a screeching halt.
Telling quote as he retires: “I wish I enjoyed it a little more at the time.” A quote we should all think about every day on this planet.
Myanmar-A-Lago
In Myanmar, formerly Burma, a military coup in recent days has demonstrated just what might have happened here less than a month ago.
Last November the National League for Democracy, Myanmar’s leading civilian party, won 83 percent of the body’s available seats. Seems like quite a few.
Alas, Myanmar’s military refused to accept the results of the vote, which was widely seen as a referendum on the popularity of Daw Aung San Suu Kyi. Ms. Aung San Suu Kyi, the head of the N.L.D., has been the country’s de facto civilian leader since taking office in 2015.
So the military staged a coup d’etat, complete with canceling all domestic and international flights, seizing the internet and controlling the media. They also might have said something about Jewish space lasers, I’m not sure.
I’m particularly interested in this because one of my closest friends in high school, the wittiest note-passer I have ever known and someone with whom I’ve remained friends all my life, just became the U.S. ambassador to Myanmar. Really. He just arrived there a couple of weeks ago. So I’m hoping for his and his family’s safety and yet I also am confident that he is someone fully able to deal with this situation. He’s always been a prince among men.
Still, it makes you realize how fragile democracy is. Especially when last month our own hastily installed Sec. of Defense was actively plotting, in sycophantic worship of his new boss, to prevent any defense of the U.S. Capitol.
AOC-SPAN
Congresswoman Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez found time yesterday to tape an impactful Instagram Live video and also to hyphen shame her shameless House counterpart, Marjorie Taylor Greene.
We have not been able to watch AOC’s video in full, but this insight bears repeating:
“The tactics used by people who are telling us all to ‘move on,’ those are the same tactics used by abusers. The folks who are saying we should move on, we shouldn’t have accountability, etc., are saying: ‘Can you just forget about this so that we can do it again?’…I’m not going t
o let it happen to me again … and I’m not going to let it happen to our country.”
GOP Schism
Speaking of Marjorie Taylor Greene, whose first two initials connote “empty,” she’s even managed to alienate Top GOP Mitch McConnell. Though he did not mention her directly, the Senate minority leader said this yesterday:
“Loony lies and conspiracy theories are cancer for the Republican Party and our country,” Mr. McConnell said. “Somebody who’s suggested that perhaps no airplane hit the Pentagon on 9/11, that horrifying school shootings were pre-staged, and that the Clintons crashed JFK Jr.’s airplane is not living in reality. This has nothing to do with the challenges facing American families or the robust debates on substance that can strengthen our party.”
I’m so old I can remember when the GOP was admonishing Democrats for not being fostering a sense of unity. Now they can’t even find unity amongst themselves.
MTG and others are clearly courting the fringe McVeigh-style Republicans who think that fair play is a sucker’s game. Here was her reply, which was extremely Trumpian:
MTG is an ugly stain not only on Georgia, but on America. You can see the hate and the mean in her face.
Mitch, as sinister as he has been dating back to the very night that Barack Obama was elected in 2008, at least saw fit to distance himself from MTG and also to defend Liz Cheney, a GOP who voted for impeachment (and is the daughter of our de facto 43rd president).
You should read this opinion column in The Washington Post, “Trumpism Is American Fascism,” by a Republican operative. Key passage:
What type of citizen has Trump — and his supportive partisan media — produced? Rep. Marjorie Taylor Greene (R-Ga.) still holds her job in Congress because she is representative of ascendant MAGA radicalism. Those who reflect her overt racism, her unhinged conspiracy thinking and her endorsement of violence against public figures are now treated as a serious political constituency within the Republican Party.
Hands-Free Device
Nike’s new Go FlyEase ($120) hits the market.. You won’t have your hands full figuring out how to put them on or take them off…
My favorite line from today, from the Dustin Diamond/Dustin Pedroia section:
“It was too bad that Pedroia got injured when still in his prime. His career came to a screeching halt.”
Screech … screeching halt? This was brilliant writing here, JW! 🙂