How many cameras does it take to catch an assassin?
New York City is blanketed with cameras. You can’t go anywhere without being captured by one. Anywhere, that is, except Central Park.
The gunman shot CEO Brian Thompson at the side entrance of the Hilton on 54th Street. He then crossed the street into a pedestrian tunnel to 55th Street, turned right, and got on a bike. and headed uptown to the park which begins at 59th Street. In the park, and now out of sight, he dropped his bag and exited the park at 77th Street on the west side. He rode his bike uptown 86th Street. There, he got into a cab and went up to the Port Authority bus terminal at 178th Street. There he got on a bus and went who knows where.
This shooting, not unlike the aftermath of the murder of George Floyd, has triggered a torrent of frustration, anger, and hate. If you saw the shooter, would you turn him in? The answer to that question has many people thinking. Was Brian Thompson a victim or did he deserve it?
November’s election has pushed us to the brink of great change. In some ways, it was probably the straw that broke the camel’s back. I’ve lost the true existential terror I felt for some time after the results came in. In its place now is a profound fascination with how our history is unfolding in front of our very eyes. I’m still anxious about what is going to happen to us on a personal level mind you, but I’m continuing to take notes because I am almost positive that all this is going to be on the quiz.
All over social media, people are posting medical insurance horror stories. No more suffering in silence, the word is out, and it isn’t pretty. Insurance companies regularly deny claims for anything above the most basic of care. They rely on the fact that few will challenge the decision or have the resources to fight it.
The President-elect practices the same grift. He has a history of hiring contractors to do a job and then paying them only a fraction of what is due to them. “Sue me for it,” is his response, knowing full well that his victims can’t afford to follow through.
Individually, victims of this type of scam are at a loss. Collectively? Let’s see what happens now. In the full light of day, this practice is going to be hard to sustain.
Anthem Blue Cross Blue Shield had announced that they would no longer reimburse patients for anesthesia costs that were needed past what their accountants considered to be a reasonable amount of time. The public outcry against this idiocy stopped them in their tracks. On Friday they backtracked and said they would not be changing their policy.
The incoming administration is not going to do a thing to stop these mega-corporate entities. It’s on us.
Law enforcement officials have commented that online amateur detectives who often help in manhunts across the country have been remarkably silent when it comes to this particular assassin. “My eyesight isn’t great since my insurance was denied, so I haven’t seen anything.”
Looking at it objectively, this shooting was an act of domestic terrorism. It was designed to terrify other corporate CEOs. It appears to be working. Calls to security firms to increase protection have gone through the roof.
It costs about a quarter of a million dollars a year to hire a basic security team. Some of these people are going to need more than the basic package.
Should we be condoning this type of terrorist activity? My jury is still out. Many of these venal financial leaders have sided with the pro-gun Republicans. The thing with unlimited access to firearms of every kind is that they tend to get discharged. If they happen to kill someone who supports their distribution, that, I think, falls into the “oh, well,” category. Live by the sword and die by the sword.
The Boston Tea Party and the burning of the Gaspee in Rhode Island were acts of domestic terrorism against our British oppressors. We seem to be okay with them.
After an endless civil war in Syria, rebel forces have suddenly, in a matter of days, surged and forced President Assad, the dictator to flee the country. The insurgents have managed to gain control of the capital, Aleppo as well as most of the rest of the country’s major cities. As of this morning, only two regions are still under Assad’s control. I can’t imagine it will take long for them to fall, given the flight of their former leader.
Syria is a mess. The main rebel group that has now taken power is Hayat Tahir al-Sham or HTS. They have been branded a terrorist group by the United States, the United Kingdom, and the European Union. They had been tied to al-Qaeda, but publicly split and reformed apart from them. Nobody is certain what the relationship between the two is now.
President Assad was supported by Russia and Iran as well as Hezbollah in Lebanon. Hezbollah has been effectively neutralized, at least for the moment, by Israel. Iran, similarly, has been thrown off-kilter by the power shift, too. If truth be told, Iran seems to be a bit screwed. Syria and Hezbollah were important regional allies of theirs. Russia, of course, is preoccupied with Ukraine and doesn’t have any bandwidth left to do anything about the advancing rebel forces. This remarkably sudden shift in control is really going to shake up the region.
The United States has long supported a Kurdish pro-democracy faction called the Syrian Democratic Forces. There are under a thousand US troops currently in Syria and President Biden, so far, is making sure that they don’t engage. The SDF only had control over a few small areas of the country.
Our President-elect doesn’t seem to want to engage in the activity there any more than President Biden does. The feeling of both men is that things just need to play out.
This is also all going to be on the quiz.
There are some days where nothing seems to happen and others where suddenly, unfolding events start coming at us from every direction. Today is one of those days.
Amid all this unrest and uncertainty, Notre Dame Cathedral reopened yesterday in Paris. Five years ago, in April, the 861-year-old building caught fire and burned. It was as if the whole world lost a beacon of hope.
The Catholic Church is not an institution for which one should shed any tears. Inside that beloved building, however, were eight and a half centuries worth of prayers. Notre Dame is one of those places where whatever your religious affiliation, you can’t help but feel the energy resonating from all those souls.
Those who prayed in that space were not corporations, governments, or even the Vatican hierarchy. They were just people. Ordinary people searching for something. All those hopes and fears and curiosity and uncertainty had suffused the thick wooden support beams and pews. The place vibrated from it all.
Some believe that if you write your prayer on a piece of paper and burn it your prayer then ascends to heaven. Perhaps that is what happened when all that ancient wood went up in flames.
For a short moment yesterday, the President-elect, First Lady Jill Biden, Ukrainian President Zelenskyy, Prince William of Britain, and French President Macron were all together under one roof with many others. Disagreements, conflicts, hatred, oppression, and strife were put aside for just a few moments.
Under the freshly painted soaring vaulted ceiling, a French singer named Vianney sang one of the most beautiful versions of Leonard Cohen’s Hallelujah I’ve ever heard. It was a more than fitting beginning for the new church.
Hallelujah- so beautiful ♥️