Five rings of cluster, the opening un-ceremonies

 The parade of nations is happening right now, over there in Tokyo. The lighting of the flame. The incredibly overblown celebration of the native culture, Japanese this time around.

Welcome to the Olympic Games, everyone.

A made-for-TV event.

Made for TV, because there is virtually no one in the Olympic Stadium. There will be no one at any of the events. No one on the streets, or virtually no one. 

And so this will be the Flat-Line Games, or something very like that. Two days before the opening ceremonies, Japan -- already under emergency Bastard Plague protocols -- reported its highest COVID-19 levels since January. They're bumping up against 2,000 new cases per day, and rising. Hospital and emergency facilities are already feeling he strain.

And now here come hundreds of athletes from all over the world.

Dozens of them have not been vaccinated, including roughly 100 Americans. And already 90 individuals associated with the Games have shown red.

The Blob does not say all this to feng anyone's shui, mind you. It is not trying to be Darren Downer or throw ice water on the proceedings or any other suitable cliche. It's only trying to point out these will not be your father's Olympics, and no one should expect them to be.

Except for the athletes themselves, see, the world is not invited this time around. The host nation will be at best dutiful and at worst openly hostile to the proceedings. Officials, in fact, report unprecedented levels of antagonism toward the Games among the Japanese people, who are struggling badly enough with this latest wave of infection without what seems an unavoidable super-spreader event being forced upon them.

In other words, people -- a lot of people -- are seriously pissed about this in Japan. Along with many of us, they want to know why the hell the Games are happening, and they don't like the answer.

The answer is, NBC has paid a truckload of cash to televise them. 

And so the Games will go on. In front of ghosts and echoes and minus the usual ambience of joyous celebration of host-nation culture, but, hey. You can't have everything.

Which is to say: The only thing that will redeem this cluster is the athletes. 

As ever.