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The Cross and the Pieta. The Passion of Palestine

Michelangelo’s Pieta, the larger-than-life sculpture of the crucified Christ held tenderly in Mother Mary’s lap, has attracted visitors to Rome since it was installed in the old St. Peter’s Basilica more than 500 years ago.

Contemplation of the Pieta gifts one with the powerful presence of sacrifice and divine acceptance, life summoned from stone, transcending death. Christians approach Good Friday with two powerful remembrances: Christ’s sacrifice and redemption on The Cross, and the acceptance, love and compassion expressed through The Pieta.

Countless images emerging from Gaza, of the sudden deaths of children, by bombing, shrapnel, gunshots, and grieving parents evoke modern day Pietas, occurring with terrible frequency. Unlike Michaelangelo’s crucified Christ, the dead children are seldom intact.

They are horribly mangled and disfigured, limbless, headless, often identified by a scrap of clothing. Yet, the bereaved parents, holding what is left of their child wrapped in white shroud, look to the heavens, and, resonating with divine grace and acceptance recite “Allah Akbar,” God is Great.

IDF killed 6 brothers in Gaza and 4 more brothers in Jenin

A father is not supposed to bury his children. It goes against the natural order of things and when parents lose their children, it is a tragedy that shakes a parent to the core, not if you live in Palestine.  That's exactly what happened in Deir al-Balah, Gaza Strip yesterday when the Israeli Death Forces (IDF) killed 6 brothers from the Abu Mahadi family by bombing their vehicle as they traveled to aid displaced people through a charity. Their elderly father has to bury his 6 sons, including his youngest of 10 years old. The men were not carrying weapons, nor were they resisting. They were civilians. The six brothers and their friend were killed when an Israeli airstrike hit their vehicle in the Gaza Strip early on Sunday. Ibrahim Abu Mahadi mourned his sons as their bodies were brought to the al-Aqsa Martyrs Hospital in Deir al-Balah, according to Gaza ambulance service. Their elderly father has to bury his 6 sons after he conducted the janaza prayers. AP reports saw the mangled and bloodied car as relatives wept over the bodies. Once again, within a 24-hour period, the IDF killed 6 Palestinian civilians in Jenin, including 4 brothers.

Stupor Mundi

President Donald Trump wants to be a modern ‘Stupor Mundi or wonder of the world. The last ‘stupor mundi’ was the celebrated German Holy Roman Emperor and crusader, Federick II, known as ‘Barbarossa.’It appears that President Trump seems determined to become the most important and commented upon person on earth. So far, he has succeeded brilliantly. So far, that is. As of this writing, Trump’s tariff crusade has become a debacle, making him and the United States the objects of hatred and fury around the plant - except for farm regions in the US and among Israel’s supporters. Now even the farmers in the Dakotas are mad as hornets at the president from Queens, New York for wrecking the soya bean market with new tariffs.To many professional money men, it appears that Trump’s Russian roulette with tariffs threatens to bring a serious recession or worse. One of America’s smartest, most successful money managers, Ray Dalio, just warned that Trump’s on-again, off-again tariff proclamations and other economic policies threaten an eventual global meltdown. Dalio is a noted financial pessimist, but we are unwise to ignore his jeremiads now that America is up to its ears in too much debt.

Understanding the Kennedy assassination document release

This is my summary of the JFK assassination document release.  Trump's executive order has not been fully implemented, as documents on the Robert Kennedy and Martin Luther King are not released, nor are 9/11 documents.   The Epstein documents are heavily redacted, probably due to Trump's many trips to Epstein Island.  Researchers will spend months reviewing all the documents.  

The biggest revelation is that there is definite proof that "lone nut" Oswald was under close scrutiny by CIA's James Angleton over 4 years from 1959 until he Oswald was murdered in Dallas police custody.  The documents show that Angleton was almost certainly using Oswald in some type of operation, although it falls short of “proof”, and leaves open the question of whether Oswald was a witting participant or a or unwitting patsy. 

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