Though I confess it didn’t take a great deal of courage or insight to make the prediction, I did suggest when 2024 began that we all buckle up for a bumpy ride. One could argue so far I’ve been off. After all, in just this decade we’ve had a summer of violent riots in dozens of cities, a pandemic, a national lockdown, a stolen election, and scores of tourists locked up for months on end, charged with insurrection, perverts demanding to dance before children. Indeed this is one reason why my “prediction” was as far fetched as suggesting that with or without Caitlyn Clark, the US Olympic Women’s basketball team will win the gold in Paris.
This year there have been precious few if any riots. There hasn’t yet been an election. The stock market has broken records and Karen masks are as out of style as leisure suits. All quiet on the western front.
Well, except for all those phony indictments against the Republican candidate for president. Except for the Georgia Attorney General hiring her secret lover as special prosecutor. Except for the sitting white, male, US president claiming to be the first black woman to serve as vice-president. Except for that same US President stumbling through a presidential candidates debate like a dementia sufferer. Except for the former president getting shot in the keystone state while under the care of either the Keystone Kops or under orders of the deep state. Except for the sitting president stepping out of the race, on twitter, in a letter. Except for that same president being out of the public eye for days on end. Except for whatever happens next.
There are two wildly shocking things here. First are all the wildly shocking things here. Second is that it continues to feel like just another year, that no one seems to find this wildly shocking. Where are the protests? Where are the screeching prophets telling us the end is near? Our indifference, acceptance of what we’ve become is damning proof of what we’ve become.
I’m not a huge fan of superhero movies. One reason is that the ante has to always be raised. It’s not two swashbucklers with clashing swords. It’s not two cowboys at high noon. It’s not dogfights in the skies over Tokyo. It’s one superhero hurling whole galaxies at another superhero who is certainly stunned, but who gets up and throws galaxies back at the first guy. If a superhero can do anything, and take anything, well, it won’t be a super story.
We’ve reached this same point in our news cycle. Assassination attempt? Yawn. Coup against the president? Big deal. Wake me when the nukes start falling. I don’t know what the coming months will show. I do know that we are little more than spectators to the sinking of the USS US. I do know that we would be wise, while seeking to be faithful to the end, not to put our trust in princes. May the Lord find a remnant and spare us further the demise of this once great nation.
We surely live in interesting times. I don’t know where you’re at with the bullet(s) that missed Trump but I surely believe Divine intervention. For what purposes? That’s the question I guess. It is funny to me that the same people who are claiming divine intervention are also claiming it could be a botched assassination attempt. Can the God who knew that Trump would turn his head have not made it possible for and against any conceivable chance that kid could have got to the roof in the first place? Pretty hard for me to believe one and not the other.