Greg hits another Home Run!
As Major League Baseball (MLB) opened its season to sunny skies with every team playing on the same day since 1937, the game’s executives seem intent on beheading the golden goose with the woke ax of the Cancel Culture.
Given the issues with two recent Georgian elections, the state’s legislature passed a bill that would strengthen the integrity and fairness of their voting laws. The MLB suits and their Democrat allies including President Biden disagreed labeling the legislation “an atrocity” and “Jim Crow.” As a result, MLB’s midseason summer classic – its annual All-Star game and amateur draft that were to take place in Atlanta – will be relocated to Colorado that has similar voting laws.
The president’s distortion of the Georgia law is intentionally divisive since he promised to unite the nation at his inauguration. Even the left leaning Washington Post awarded Biden four Pinocchio’s.
MLB’s certitude is business as usual. During last year’s abbreviated season, MLB stenciled a Marxist organization’s initials on pitching mounds leaguewide. Despite their All-Star boycott of Georgia, MLB announced an expanded television deal with China. MLB must not realize that in China they eat their bats rather than swing them.
MLB should showcase their All-Star game in Wuhan. Surely, the Uighurs in their Xinjiang province “re-education” camps would tune in. Even Secretary of State Antony Binken said China is committing genocide against the Uighurs.
The media needs to question Biden on how a law committed to voter integrity in a state that he won warrants a boycott, while communist China gets a pass.
The Georgia law will require absentee voters to provide identification when requesting and mailing in their ballot. Likewise, ballot drop boxes that were temporary during the pandemic will continue but be reduced. There were no drop boxes prior to COVID, ever.
What will MLB do when other states pass similar voter integrity laws? Stop playing games in those states? Why are any of the 81 regular season games being played in Atlanta if this law is so egregious?
Politics injecting itself into professional sports is vogue. In July 2016, the NBA pulled its All-Star Game from Charlotte, N.C. because a state law mandated that transgenders use bathrooms according to their birth gender. After the law was repealed, the NBA rewarded Charlotte their 2019 All-Star game.
Political division is nothing new, but the ridiculous and despotic reactions are. Perhaps MLB is auditioning for their future masters – the Chinese Communist Party? No need to concern yourself with voter suppression when there are no elections.
Georgia is in no way suppressing legitimate voters, but their law does make it harder for illegitimate voters – and that is the crux – for Democrats. MLB has smeared Georgia’s elected majority as racist and anti-democratic.
State officials should sue for defamation.
Here is MLB lecturing on election integrity when nothing is more fraudulent than an MLB All-Star ballot, where voting early and often is creed.
Drive to the park, buy a beer at the game and you will need identification. Producing identification is not voter suppression; it is voter certification. And you better have your immunization card updated to enter because that is next.
Sports should be apolitical, but it is the weak and craven who fail to step up to the plate and make it so. Georgia showed uncharacteristic courage for politicians something MLB and the crony and woke CEOs at Atlanta based Delta Air Lines and Coca-Cola severely lack.
If other legislatures and organizations would exhibit such resolve perhaps, a real examination, without the name calling about why one group has lagged behind in most metrics despite decades of unconstitutional subsidies and preferences. Then we could address some real causes: 70% children born out of wedlock, 52% of murders, 37% of abortions among a culture that is only 13% of the population where entitlement and victimization handcuff advancement while atrophying young minds.
Bureaucratic elites are in lockstep with the anti-liberty, totalitarian, Constitution-hating zealots who occupy Washington. This decision by MLB is just the latest example.
Sports is entertainment, not a political movement.
Until conservatives can boycott as effectively as leftists, expect more of the same.
Conservatives need to take a final homerun trot around the MLB bases of going, going… gone.
Good luck with your new friends, MLB.
Originally posted 2021-04-09 11:02:17.
BIRMINGHAM, ALABAMA – Revelations that the insurrection at the US Capitol included many former and current members of America’s armed forces have been met with alarm. And yet, as a 35-year veteran and retired commandant of the US Marine Corps, I saw the events of January 6 as the predictable culmination of a growing disconnect between the US military and civilian society.
Once home, many veterans joined organizations like the Veterans of Foreign Wars and the American Legion, where they were surrounded by like-minded people who had served, suffered, and sacrificed together. Jobs were plentiful, and Americans took pride in their country and their military.
Similarly, in the Korean War less than a decade later, though America was never “all in,” it nonetheless had clear strategic goals. As in WWII, US servicemen and women did a remarkable job and came home to an appreciative country.
But then came Vietnam, where most Americans never really knew what their country was fighting for. When the conflict finally came to its ignominious end in April 1975, there was no victory to celebrate (and it certainly was not fireworks that flew from the roof of the US embassy in Saigon). Unlike previous generations, those who fought in Vietnam were not honored for their service and sacrifice. Equally important, the public backlash against the war led to the end of military conscription, which fundamentally transformed the relationship between the military and the American people. The rift created by the shift to an all-volunteer military has grown wider ever since.
After Vietnam, America’s next major war was Desert Storm, in 1990. Again, clear strategic goals were met in a dramatic fashion, and US servicemen and women returned to a proud country – on the cusp of becoming the world’s only remaining superpower with the collapse of the Soviet Union the following year.
Yet by the end of the Gulf War, globalization and technological change had already begun to reshape American society. Old-line industries were being upended, and many manufacturing jobs were disappearing. Although immigration had only a minor effect on the big economic picture, it became a hot-button political issue for those who found themselves out of work. At the same time, a new wave of social-justice issues also started gaining momentum during this period. As a microcosm of America, the US military was not immune to these political dynamics.
It was against this political, social, and economic backdrop that America embarked on its “long war.” Much like Vietnam, the “War on Terror” lacks clear strategic goals and has lost public buy-in over time. Many of those who have fought it subscribe to the apocryphal refrain that while the military was at war, America was at Walmart. After serving multiple tours in Iraq or Afghanistan, servicemen and women who sacrificed years of their lives have received little recognition.
In his 1973 book, The American Way of War, the historian Russell F. Weigley quoted US General George C. Marshall as saying, “a democracy cannot fight a Seven Years’ War,” because any protracted conflict eventually will lose the support of the electorate. The longer a war runs – particularly when it becomes cross-generational – the greater the disconnect between the typical citizen and the soldiers, sailors, airmen, and marines who serve.
he War on Terror is an abiding case in point, helping to shed light on the unrest and extremism that burst into public view at the Capitol. A small minority of alienated former and active service members have concluded that something is wrong in the America for which they fought and sacrificed. The past two presidential elections have fueled this discontent and convinced some that they have a duty to confront perceived domestic “enemies.” Political leaders, meanwhile, have exploited these sentiments for their own advantage.
The COVID-19 pandemic also contributed to a perfect storm. As the economy shed jobs – particularly at the lower end of the income distribution – face-to-face interactions were no longer possible. With deepening social atomization, it has become more difficult to experience solidarity. Angst or boredom have afflicted many, and some have found refuge in online communities espousing extremist ideologies. The 2020 presidential election brought the situation to a boiling point. A sitting commander-in-chief openly sought to overturn a free and fair election with lies and intimidation, and a small minority of his acolytes answered his call to action. Really?
But Americans should have faith. Notwithstanding a few outliers, the US military is unwavering in its support of, and dedication to, the US Constitution. Those in its ranks who harbor extremist views will be discovered and dealt with appropriately. Looking ahead, recruitment methods will be strengthened to weed out extremists. Recruiters will have to look not only at candidates’ social-media activity but also at their “body paint” (tattoos) and other potential indicators of extremist or racist sympathies. Interviews will need to be more pointed, and education for active members improved.
While the troubling trajectory of US military-civil relations has created fertile ground for some members to be radicalized, it is important to remember that the insurrectionists represent an exception. The US military has defended American democracy for centuries and will continue to do so, in keeping with our noblest traditions. Yes, I agree general, you can bet on it!
CHARLES C. KRULAK
Writing for PS since 2020
4 Commentaries
In sum, I categorize this fellow in the same company as Mattis, Allen, and all the other Kool Aid drinking generals viewing the military through their woke eyes and ears. Krulak says the recruiters will take care of this supposed problem. LOL What does he know about recruiting — Nothing!