“That Was the Week That Was,” and this time it’s not satire

July 23, 2024

“That Was the Week That Was,” also known as “TWTWTW” or “TW3,” was a satirical television comedy program that aired on BBC Television in 1962 and 1963, and an American version aired on NBC in 1964 and 1965. 

What we have just witnessed was a highly notable week, not unlike those featured on TW3, in terms of their attracting attention. But these are notable not for their satirical value but for their serious nature and impending results.

The first of those is that as the Republican National Convention grew nearer, Donald Trump ended the weeks of speculation about who his running mate would be by selecting J.D. Vance, a U.S. Senator from Ohio.

Vance, who has been in the Senate less than two years, is a bit of a controversial choice. A Marine Corps veteran who turns 40 next month, he “would be the third-youngest U.S. vice president if elected. He has a history of hard-line positions on issues such as abortion. And he has a reputation for hot rhetoric,” NBC News reported. Interestingly, not so long ago he was not a fan of Trump. 

His relative youth among the most prominent likely candidates is a notable move toward younger leadership.

Next, while many Americans, Democrats — including some highly prominent Democrats — thought Joe Biden should withdraw from the race, he stubbornly refused to step aside, although recent reports had said he was discussing that with his family. 

Then, on Sunday afternoon on X, formerly Twitter, Biden said that he will not be a candidate for reelection: “It has been the greatest honor of my life to serve as your President. And while it has been my intention to seek reelection, I believe that it is in the best interest of my party and the country for me to stand down and to focus solely on fulfilling my duties as President for the remainder of my term.”

Without Biden on the ticket, the Democrats have a serious problem: finding a replacement who has the necessary appeal to gain broad support.

Although she was endorsed by Biden, Kamala Harris’ performance as VP does not support her candidacy. As the so-called “Border Czar, she did nothing about the millions of illegals allowed into the country, and the resulting deaths of many Americans from illegal drugs, and criminal activities. And her penchant for cackling and word salads do not invite support. 

Next, a technology outage affected millions across the globe last Friday, leading to speculation that a cyber-attack had occurred. Instead, this event was blamed on a faulty software update by cybersecurity firm CrowdStrike, a firm that provides software to thousands of companies worldwide.

CrowdStrike said the problem occurred when it deployed a software update for its security product, Falcon Sensor. Microsoft Windows computers crashed when trying to install the update. 

The outage grounded flights, knocked media outlets offline, disrupted hospitals, banks, hotels, manufacturers, stock markets and government offices. This calamity should focus everyone’s attention on the instability of a digitized world where so many users must rely on a relative few providers.

Completing the list is the most serious of the group: The attempted assassination of a former President of the United States, at a campaign rally.

While the attempt failed to kill Trump, leaving him with a fairly non-serious injury, one attendee was killed and two others were seriously wounded. And the question on most everyone’s mind is, how did a gunman manage to get into what should have been a highly secured event under control of the U.S. Secret Service (SS)? And exactly who is primarily responsible for this atrocious failure?

The broad answer to that question is that the SS is responsible. It was an event where it had the duty to protect a former president, and was therefore in charge.

And yet a young gunman was able to get on top of a nearby building — that should have been manned by or at least under surveillance of the SS or some designee of the SS — long enough in advance of the event to have been noticed and reported by witnesses. Yet warnings of this individual’s presence were either not effectively communicated, or were ignored.

It is widely accepted that there were at least two shooters present. A thorough audio investigation of the gunshots showed that there were at least three different weapons fired. The first three shots were fired by the 20-year-old gunman, and the first one hit Trump’s ear. Next were several shots from another gunman who at this point has not been identified.

The third weapon to be fired was that of a SS sniper who shot and killed the 20-year-old shooter.

U.S. Secret Service Director Kimberly Cheatle has avoided questioning about the matter, and those few comments she has made indicate that she has no clue what was going on, and what protections should have been in place. Perhaps she, too, will step aside, or be removed and replaced with someone competent.

This episode is yet one more dramatic failure of the Biden/Harris administration, which includes dangerous the border crisis, the catastrophic Afghanistan withdrawal, record high inflation, a national energy crisis, our falling reputation among other countries, among others.