Stuff On the Way to Other Stuff: Our Crazy World, Politically and Olympically Speaking

     Normally I reserve my rants for Mondays. News lately is just nuts, though...and I can't stand much more. Up on the soapbox -- here we go.

WEIRDNESS #1:   The French Olympics committee (reluctantly) confirmed that the posed tableau of drag queens and others, centered on a Jesus-themed figure (sort of - with halo, no less), was meant to mimic DaVinci's Last Supper. Like we didn't know this. 

They originally denied it, claiming it was 'just a misunderstanding,' and couldn't figure out why Christians and religious figures everywhere were outraged. After all, the segment:

“depicts a great paean feast in which the gods of Olympus take part. In the foreground is the god of wine — father of Sequana, goddess of the Seine — portrayed in a comic way by the singer Philippe Katherine,” referring to the moment a nearly naked man painted blue from head to toe is “served” on an oversize platter on the table in front of the performers.

(Oops. Forgot to mention him.)

Thomas Jolly, the director (and originator, I assume) had an interesting defense: 'Everyone else uses it...so it's ok.' (The Last Supper wasn't even mentioned in his first message. Apparently he thought we were all too stupid to notice.)

Well, not posed with Dionysius and drag queens galore, Buddy. This was NOT Jesus's message, or DaVinci's...and you know it.

On with the fun.

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WEIRDNESS #2:   According to Christopher Wray, the FBI Director, maybe Trump was just struck with a piece of glass or something:  

Wray had sat before Congress on Thursday and said: “With respect to former President Trump, there’s some question about whether or not it’s a bullet or shrapnel that hit his ear.”

                You have got to be kidding.

    I'm not clear here. Are you saying it was an accident? A bottle thrown by a bystander? A playful miss or love tap, instead of an assassination? Trump himself said he felt it go through his ear. And Rep. Ronny Jackson, his former White House physician, who examined him afterwards, said there is "absolutely no evidence" that it WASN'T a bullet.

Humph. What would they know.

    Fortunately, all was cleared up when the FBI issued an official statement:

  "What struck former President Trump in the ear was a bullet, whether whole or fragmented into smaller pieces, fired from the deceased subject's rifle." 

    The deputy FBI director cemented this during testimony in Congress:

FBI Deputy Director Paul Abbate made the admission as he offered condolences to the victims of the shooting in Butler, Pa. – which also included the fatally shot firefighter Corey Comperatore and injured rally goers James Copenhaver and David Dutch.

“And to former president Trump, who was also struck by a bullet fired from the shooter’s rifle,” Abbate said, noting the agency is treating the assassination attempt as domestic terrorism.

Oh really.

Trump issued a statement, saying that he "fully accepted" Wray's "apology."  (The Director didn't apologize, by the way.)

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WEIRDNESS #3:  Acting Secret Service Director Rowe said, during testimony in Congress, that he was "ashamed" of the Secret Service's actions during the Butler, PA rally. 

Ya think?!?  (My dad's favorite expression for such matters.)

After hearing the former Secret Service director's feeble defense that the roof was 'too slanted,' among other inconsistencies... it's about time. (It also came out that snipers were on the roof that Crooks used -- but thought it was "too hot" and left. Apparently the other roof they used, also in full sun, was just fine.) 

“Based on what I know right now, neither the Secret Service counter-sniper teams nor members of the former president’s security detail had any knowledge that there was a man on the roof of the AGR building with a firearm,” Rowe revealed.

“It is my understanding those personnel were not aware the assailant had a firearm until they heard gunshots,” he said. “Prior to that, they were operating with the knowledge that local law enforcement was working an issue of a suspicious individual prior to the shots being fired.”

He added that he has since visited the Butler Farm Show grounds, where he “identified gaps in our security” and instituted “corrective actions” to prevent another shooter like Thomas Matthew Crooks, 20, from opening fire at Trump or any Secret Service protectee.

“I laid in a prone position to evaluate his line of sight,” Rowe told members of both committees in his opening remarks. “What I saw made me ashamed. As a career law enforcement officer, and a 25-year veteran with the Secret Service, I cannot defend why that roof was not better secured,” he confessed.

“I can assure you, we’re not going to make that mistake again,” he vowed. “When our counter snipers are up, their counter snipers are up and they’re on the roof as well.”

    When Sen. Josh Hawley on the committee asked Rowe who was senior agent in charge at Butler, Rowe refused to name him -- but said the officer was still in the Secret Service:

“I acknowledge this was a failure. This could have been our Texas School Book Depository,” the acting director lamented, comparing the near-assassination to the tragic killing of President John F. Kennedy. “I have lost sleep over that for the last 17 days.”

“Then fire somebody!” Hawley shouted.

“I will tell you, Senator, that I will not rush to judgment, that people will be held accountable, and I will do so with integrity,” Rowe shot back. 

Let's see if he keeps his word. The Brick is skeptical, but I prefer to hope.

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WEIRDNESS #4:  Benjamin Netanyahu, Israel's prime minister, came to the U.S. to plead his cause. He gave an incredibly stirring message to Congress:

We meet today at a crossroads of history. Our world is in upheaval. In the Middle East, Iran’s axis of terror confronts America, Israel and our Arab friends. This is not a clash of civilizations. It’s a clash between barbarism and civilization. It’s a clash between those who glorify death and those who sanctify life.

For the forces of civilization to triumph, America and Israel must stand together. Because when we stand together, something very simple happens. We win. They lose.

...My friends, for more than nine months, Israel’s soldiers have shown boundless courage....these are the soldiers of Israel—unbowed, undaunted, unafraid.

As the Bible says, “עם כלביא יקום” —they shall rise like lions. They’ve risen like lions, the lions of Judah, the lions of Israel....

Ladies and Gentlemen,
The men and women of the IDF come from every corner of Israeli society, every ethnicity, every color, every creed, left and right, religious and secular. All are imbued with the indomitable spirit of the Maccabees, the legendary Jewish warriors of antiquity.

With us today is Yechiel Leiter, the father of one of those Mccabees. Yehiel’s father escaped the Holocaust and found refuge in America. As a young man, Yechiel moved to Israel and raised a family of eight children. He named his eldest son Moshe after his late father. Moshe became an exemplary officer in one of our elite commando units. He served with distinction for two decades while raising six beautiful children of his own.

On October 7th, Moshe volunteered to return to combat. Four weeks later, he was killed when a booby-trap mine exploded in a tunnel shaft right next to a Mosque. At his son’s funeral Yechiel said this: “If the State of Israel had not been established after the Holocaust, the image engraved in our collective memory would have been the photograph of that helpless Jewish boy in the Warsaw Ghetto holding his hands up in the air with Nazi riffles pointed at him. But because of the birth of Israel,” Yechiel continued, “because of the courage of soldiers like my son Moshe, the Jewish people are no longer helpless in the face of our enemies.”

My friends,
Defeating our brutal enemies requires both courage and clarity. Clarity begins by knowing the difference between good and evil. Yet incredibly many anti-Israel protesters, many choose to stand with evil. They stand with Hamas. They stand with rapists and murderers. They stand with people who came into the kibbutzim, into a home, the parents hid the children, the two babies, in the attic, in a secret attic. They murdered the family, the parents, they found the secret latch to the hidden attic and then they murdered the babies. These protesters stand with them. They should be ashamed of themselves.

They refuse to make the simple distinction between those who target terrorists and those who target civilians, between the democratic State of Israel and the terrorist thugs of Hamas. We recently learned from the U.S. Director of National Intelligence, that Iran is funding and promoting anti-Israel protests in America. They want to disrupt America. So these protesters burned American flags even on the 4th of July. And I wish to salute the fraternity brothers at the University of North Carolina who protected the American flag, protected the American flag against these anti-Israel protesters.

For all we know, Iran is funding the anti-Israel protests that are going on right now outside this building—not that many, but they’re there—and throughout the city. Well, I have a message for these protesters: When the Tyrants of Tehran, who hang gays from cranes and murder women for not covering their hair, are praising, promoting and funding you, you have officially become Iran’s useful idiots.

It’s amazing, absolutely amazing. Some of these protesters hold up signs proclaiming “Gays for Gaza.” They might as well hold up signs saying “Chickens for KFC.” These protesters chant “From the river to the sea.” But many don’t have a clue what river and what sea they’re talking about. They not only get an F in geography, they get an F in history. They call Israel a colonialist state. Don’t they know that the Land of Israel is where Abraham, Isaac and Jacob prayed, where Isaiah and Jeremiah preached and where David and Solomon ruled?

For nearly four thousand years, the land of Israel has been the homeland of the Jewish people. It’s always been our home; it will always be our home.

It’s not only the campus protesters who get it wrong. It’s also the people who run those campuses. Eighty years after the Holocaust, the presidents of Harvard, Penn, and I’m ashamed to say my alma mater MIT couldn’t bring themselves to condemn the calls for the genocide of Jews. Remember what they said? They said, it depends on the context. Well, let me give these befuddled academics a little context.

Antisemitism is the world’s oldest hatred. For centuries, the massacre of Jews was always preceded by wild accusations. We were accused of everything from poisoning wells to spreading plagues to using the blood of slaughtered children to bake Passover matzos. These preposterous antisemitic lies led to persecution, mass murder and ultimately to history’s worst genocide, the Holocaust.

Now, just as malicious lies were levelled for centuries at the Jewish people, malicious lies are now being levelled at the Jewish state. No, no. Don’t applaud. Listen. The outrageous slanders that paint Israel as racist and genocidal are meant to delegitimize Israel, to demonize the Jewish State and to demonize Jews everywhere. And no wonder, no wonder we’ve witnessed an appalling rise of antisemitism in America and around the world.

My friends,
Whenever and wherever we see the scourge of antisemitism, we must unequivocally condemn it and resolutely fight it, without exception.

And don’t be fooled when the blood libels against the Jewish State come from people who wear fancy silk robes and speak in lofty tones about law and Justice.

 President Biden was there to show U.S. support while Netanyahu was speaking...right? Nope, although he did meet with him 'hours earlier,' to talk with hostage families.

    How about Vice President Harris? Nope, addressing a group of college sorority girls. That was much more important than honoring one of our important allies with our presence. P.S. the Vice President is expected to preside over combined sessions of Congress. Obviously that didn't happen this time.

    And where was Blinken, our Secretary of State? Persona non grata, as well.

     Sigh. I guess I should be grateful that Harris found time in her busy schedule to meet briefly with Netanyahu behind closed doors.  So what did she say, about the attacks on Israel, including the one that started all this?

“What has happened in Gaza over the past nine months is devastating,” Harris told reporters after the meeting. “We cannot look away in the face of these tragedies. We cannot allow ourselves to become numb to the suffering, and I will not be silent.”

Harris said she would "always" ensure Israel's ability to defend itself and pointed to what she described as a "hopeful movement" in talks to secure a cease-fire. She said she told Netanyahu that “it is time to get this deal done.”

“Let’s get the deal done so we can get a cease-fire to end the war. Let’s bring the hostages home, and let’s provide much-needed relief to the Palestinian people. And ultimately, I remain committed to a path forward that can lead to a two-state solution," Harris said.

 Soon after, Netanyahu had to leave suddenly. Why? Because Hezbollah decided to aim a rocket at a playing field in the Golan Heights, and kill twelve kids. (Surely, as integral parts of Israel's war effort, they needed to be neutralized.)

 Do I hear protests from the usual politicians and celebrities? Naaah... crickets.

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Then finally, to complete the Department of 'Tell me what to believe, and I'll do it:'

WEIRDNESS #5:

President Biden landed at 1:30 a.m., and was met by reporters, who, I'm sure, he'd hoped to avoid. (After all, it was way past his bedtime.) One reporter asked what he wanted to be remembered for. Biden's response:

"That I’ve cured the economy and the environment and a few other small things,” he replied.

Mr. President, consumer costs are up more than 20% since you came into the office. In fact, I'd say we've noticed many 50-100% jumps, especially in groceries. Do you ever shop at a grocery store? For that matter, does VP Harris??

     Credit card interest rates have nearly doubled, and mortgage rates are similarly terrible. Many of the added jobs you like to boast about seem to have more to do with Covid restrictions ending, than your many executive orders. And don't even mention the exploding national debt...

     Yep, the environment is doing soooo much better, thanks to an insistence on things like electric cars, busses and trucks (which can't handle the cold very well) and only two of the promised charging stations built, in spite of a boatload of money thrown at them.

Don't let VP Harris meet (ornot) with all the visiting bigshots. You still have work to do!

And that mercifully ends today's rant. I think I'll go lie down.

I keep reminding myself this is a broken world -- why would I expect anything different? Fellow Christians, read Proverbs 16 -- it is both encouraging and damning. I have to believe that God is allowing this, for His reasons. 

Do I believe He is still in control? Oh yes. But still...