An Olympic-Sized Problem, Con't

Japan is still trying to salvage the 2020 -- I mean 2021 -- Summer Games in the age of austerity and COVID, and the country has made the decision to exclude international spectators, meaning those multi-billion dollar stadiums and facilities are going to go largely unfilled and will remain empty long after the Games are gone.

International spectators will not be allowed to enter Japan for this summer’s Olympic Games amid public concerns over coronavirus, organisers said on Saturday, setting the stage for a drastically scaled-back event.

Some 600,000 Olympic tickets purchased by overseas residents will be refunded, as will another 300,000 Paralympic tickets, Toshiro Muto, the chief executive of the Tokyo 2020 organising committee told a news conference.

He declined to say how much the refunds would cost.

The Olympic Games were postponed last year due to the COVID-19 pandemic. While the outbreak has chilled public opinion toward the event, both organisers and Prime Minister Yoshihide Suga have vowed to press ahead with the Games.

The decision on international spectators will “ensure safe and secure Games for all participants and the Japanese public,” Tokyo 2020 organisers said in a statement following five-way talks that included the head of the International Olympic Committee, Thomas Bach, and the Tokyo governor.

“People who are involved in the Olympics in some way may be allowed to enter the country, whereas regular visitors will not be able to,” Tokyo 2020’s Muto said.

He said costs for hotel cancellations would not be covered. Organisers may also consider cutting the number of staff members who will participate in the Games.

The Games are scheduled for July 23 to Aug. 8, and the Paralympics from Aug. 24 to Sept. 5.

Media polls have shown that a majority of the Japanese public are wary about letting in international spectators to watch the Games as the country grapples with the tail-end of a third wave of the pandemic. 

 

In other words, Japan still expects to be dealing with the COVID pandemic in July and August. The rest of us should take notice, and maybe confront the notion that the Olympics aren't long for this earth in general. 

Just saying.

Behind The Q-Ball

Colorado GOP Rep. Lauren Boebert continued her professional conspiracy theorist routine claiming the latest nutjob tinfoil hat goofiness, that enough Democrats would be resigning from Congress to give the GOP control over the House and Senate.

 

Congresswoman Lauren Boebert put a Q-flavored cherry atop an already controversial town hall last Monday night, when she claimed to have insider knowledge of a QAnon-linked conspiracy theory promoted by The Epoch Times that secret documents declassified in the final days of the Trump administration will expose wrongdoing by Trump’s enemies and lead to resignations and arrests, allowing Republicans to gain a majority in the U.S. House and Senate prior to the 2022 election.

Boebert, a Republican, claims her sources for this are close to Trump.

“And this is my opinion with that information that I have, I believe we will see resignations begin to take place. And I think we can take back the majority in the House and the Senate before 2022 when all of this is ended,” Boebert said at the Montrose event.

Her startling claim, first reported by Dennis Anderson of the Delta County Independent, came in response to the last question of the evening. An unidentified man wanted to know if there will ever be “perp walks” for Hillary Clinton and high-level officials like the former heads of the FBI and CIA.

 

The conspiracy can never fail, it can only be failed by improperly penitent cultists.  Steve M. understands the larger picture:

The thing is, Republicans don't want anything in between their wish list and the Democrats' wish list. They don't want half-measures. They don't want to compromise. They don't want to pull Democratic legislation a few inches to the right while leaving it mostly intact. They want it all or they want nothing.

 

And if they can't have it, they will actively destroy it and terrorize the rest of us until they win.

They love the QAnon mass-arrest fantasy in part because it allows them to imagine a world where they simply don't have to worry about the existence of an opposition party -- the Democratic Party, if their dreams come true, won't be reduced in numbers, it will be all but eliminated as a political force in America. (They've done this already at the legislative level in many states, but they can't seem to do it in Congress yet.)

They don't want to live in a world where the parties share power. They want one-party rule and nothing less.

 

When you get this, the whole Q thing makes sense. It's about control of everything, absolutely everything, and using fear and fascism to get it.