Here are a few funny and silly signs.  I suppose they have caused a few question marks to fly out of the heads of people who have seen them.  I think the last one should appear on some of the entrances to extremely busy freeways in Los Angeles and Orange Counties. 

Earlier this week, two groups in a migrant caravan began traveling north from the southern border of Mexico.  It was the same day, on July 21, when President Biden announced that he would be dropping out of the 2024 presidential election race.

The groups, composed of about 3,000 people, are on their way to the southern U.S. border.  The migrants are from a dozen Latin American nations, including Guatemala, Honduras, El Salvador and Venezuela.

Some in the migrant groups have said that they hope to reach the U.S. border before the presidential election in November.  They fear that if Donald Trump wins the presidency, he will follow through with a promise to close the border to asylum-seekers.

Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu gave a joint address to the U.S. Congress today.  He spoke for about 56 minutes.

This is Netanyahu’s first address to Congress since the beginning of the Israel–Hamas war, over nine months ago, on Oct. 7, 2023.  It has been the longest and most deadly war in Israel since Israel became a nation in 1948.

A few hours later, President Joe Biden gave an address from the oval office in the White House.  He spoke for 11 minutes.

This was Biden’s first address after dropping out of the 2024 presidential election.  He spoke about his decision to withdraw and his plans for what will be the final few months in his lengthy political career.

In 2022, President Biden announced the appointment of Kimberly Cheatle as director of the U.S. Secret Service.  She assumed that office on September 17, 2022.

Since the attempted assassination of former president Donald Trump on July 13 in Butler, Pennsylvania, there has been a great deal of blame placed on the Secret Service for failing to preventing Thomas Matthew Crooks from wounding Trump and at least two others, and killing Corey Comperatore, all attending the rally.  The agency has protected U.S. presidents and presidential candidates since 1901.  However, Cheatle said that it had been the responsibility of local law enforcement to secure the building from which the shooter launched his attack on Trump.

Yesterday, Cheatle testified before the United States House Committee on Oversight and Accountability about Trump’s assassination attempt.  During the hearing, she acknowledged that it was “the most significant operational failure at the Secret Service in decades.”

There was a bipartisan push of lawmakers calling for Cheatle to resign.  During the hearing, she pledged not to resign.  However, today Kimberly Cheatle did resign from her position as director of the U.S. Secret Service.  As of today, Ronald L. Rowe has begun serving as the Acting Director of the Secret Service.

Late today, it was reported that there has been a wave of endorsements from state delegates for Vice President Kamala Harris to be the Democratic nominee for president.  This follows President Joe Biden’s dropping out of the 2024 presidential race yesterday.

The 2024 Democratic National Convention will take place in Chicago from August 19 through August 22.  That is where and when the vice presidential nominee will be officially named.  So far, Harris has beem backed by far more than the 1,976 delegates needed to win the nomination on the first ballot.

Harris said, “Tonight, I am proud to have secured the broad support needed to become our party’s nominee, and as a daughter of California, I am proud that my home state’s delegation helped put our campaign over the top.  I look forward to formally accepting the nomination soon.”

President Joe Biden posted a letter on social media today announcing that he is dropping out of the 2024 presidential race.  This will end Biden’s political career of over five decades, beginning with his election as a U.S. senator from Delaware in 1972.  At age 81, he is the oldest sitting president in U.S. history.

Biden indicated that, from this point forward, he intends to focus on fulfilling his duties as president for the remainder of his term.  Later, he offered his full endorsement of and support for Vice President Kamala Harris as the Democratic candidate for president.

At Olive Tree Ministries this weekend, Jan Markell spent the hour with Dr. J.B. Hixson.  One minute after the rapture of believers, everything will change.  People will be filled with confusion, fear, and regret.  The only kind of order out of the chaos will come from a man called the Antichrist.

Jan: “When the time was right, the sea parted, the walls fell down, the lions went hungry, the sun stood still, the waves were calm.  The stone was rolled away, the clouds were parted, the Lord ascended.  And when the time is right, the King of kings will return.  God is never early, He is never late; He’s always right on time, and His plan for you is good.”

         

         
30-second slideshow

Today’s program, lasting 57 minutes, can be heard here:

The world’s diabolical leader will be the first beast, also known as the man of lawlessness (2 Thessalonians 2:3) or the Antichrist.  He will deceive and have control over the entire world for 42 months (3½ years).

The beast was given a mouth to utter proud words and blasphemies and to exercise his authority for forty-two months.  He opened his mouth to blaspheme God, and to slander his name and his dwelling place and those who live in heaven.  He was given power to make war against the saints and to conquer them.  And he was given authority over every tribe, people, language and nation.  All inhabitants of the earth will worship the beast—all whose names have not been written in the book of life belonging to the Lamb that was slain from the creation of the world. (Revelation 13:5-8)

A massive and widespread IT (information technology) outage began early today.  Global disruptions have affected many airlines, financial institutions, 911 lines, hospitals, broadcasters, fast-food outlets and retailers.

According to the cybersecurity firm Crowdstrike, the problem was caused by a “defect” in a single content update for Windows hosts.  Crowdstrike is a major provider of malware and virus protection to a large array of companies.  Crowdstrike and Microsoft have said that a fix has been deployed.  However, the problems will take some time to be resolved.

This was the final night of the 2024 Republican National Convention in Milwaukee, WI.  Donald Trump formally accepted his nomination to be the GOP presidential candidate.  He also said that, only by the grace of God, the assassination attempt against him five days ago was not successful.  In his very lengthy speech of over 1½ hour, he covered numerous topics and talked about many of them repeatedly.

A neighbor gave me a 2025 calendar.  It was produced by the American Legion, a U.S. Veterans Association.

Before now, I’d never seen a calendar for the following year this early in the year.  I really like the front cover, the back cover, and the picture for every month (shown on the back cover).

I also like calendars that include the phases of the moon for each month, as well as small versions of the previous month and the following month.  I will enjoy looking at this calendar throughout 2025.  You can click on the images to see much larger views.

Back in 2018, President Trump unilaterally withdrew from the 2015 nuclear deal with Iran and reimposed sanctions against Iran.  In 2019, there were attacks on U.S. bases in Iraq, including a U.S. embassy.  The Pentagon evaluated Iranian Major General Qasem Soleimani as the leader of the attacks.  It said that Soleimani and his troops were “responsible for the deaths of hundreds of American and coalition service members and the wounding of thousands more.”

President Donald Trump accused Iran of orchestrating the attack on the embassy and added that they would be held “fully responsible.”  On January 3, 2020, the assassination of Qasem Soleimani took place.  He was killed by an American drone strike near Baghdad International Airport in Iraq.

Recently, it was reported that U.S. intelligence officials might have detected an Iranian plot against former President Donald Trump prior to Trump’s rally in Butler, Pennsylvania, on July 13.  There has been speculation that the threat was connected to the assassination attempt on Trump during the rally.  That probably was not the case.  However, whether or not Trump is re-elected as president, it is possible that Iran could plan future attacks against him.  Time will tell.

Donald Trump is in Milwaukee, Wisconsin, today on the first day of the the 2024 Republican National Convention.  He has chosen J. D. Vance, U.S. senator from Ohio, as his nominee for vice president.  Trump has accepted the Republican nomination for president.

An FBI investigation has been going on since the attempted assassination of Donald Trump at his rally in Butler, Pennsylvania, on July 13.  It is being called a potential act of domestic terrorism.  The shooter was identified as Thomas Matthew Crooks, age 20, from Bethel Park, Pennsylvania.  Why he carried out the attack remains unclear.

At Olive Tree Ministries this weekend, Jan Markell spent the hour with Pastor Billy Crone.  When they say peace and security, they will be calling for a world savior and a New World Order.

What were Klaus Schwab’s ties to the White House?  God’s New World Order will be during the Millennium, the destination for all believers.

         

         

         
45-second slideshow

Today’s program, lasting 55 minutes, can be heard here:

This afternoon, Donald Trump held a campaign rally in Butler, Pennsylvania, about 35 miles north of Pittsburgh.  After speaking for at least 10 minutes, eight gunshots were heard.  Trump’s right ear was grazed by one of the bullets, and blood could be seen on his ear and on his face.  Evidently, it was an assassination attempt on the former president.

Secret Service agents grabbed Trump, brought him down onto the stage and shielded him on all sides.  After a few minutes, they stood him up, walked him off the stage and took him to his motorcade.  Trump was taken to a local medical facility, where he was examined and received treatment.

Police began vacating the fairgrounds shortly after Trump left the stage.  Local officers described it as a crime scene.

Reporters were told that Secret Service agents killed the shooter, who later was identified as Thomas Matthew Crooks, age 20, from Pennsylvania.  An audience member was killed, and two others were critically injured.  It appears that Crooks was outside of the security perimeter when he opened fire.

I received the following email from someone:

It always takes me awhile to respond to emails, if I can find the time to do it at all.  I finally got around to responding to this person’s email.  My reply is here:

NATO’s 75th anniversary summit took place three days this week in Washington, DC.  The meetings were chaired by NATO Secretary General Jens Stoltenberg.

This evening, on the last night of the summit, President Biden held a solo press conference.  He responded to many questions asked by several people.  At one point, Biden referred to President Zelensky as President Putin.  At another point, he referred to Vice President Harris as Vice President Trump.

In the video below, Biden speaks and then answers questions.  He did insist that he will be remaining in the 2024 presidential race.  The questions and Biden’s answers lasted a little over 59 minutes.

Recently, a friend and I went to a couple of Costco stores.  Before she purchased a few things, we enjoyed several food samples that they served.  Sometimes we call it “going to Costco for lunch.” 

At Walmart today, I happened to see signs in an aisle that indicated a 75% discount for 4th of July items.  I was surprised, since July 4 was five days ago.  Also, post-holiday discounts usually are only 50% off.

These were in an aisle that typically contains holiday candy.  I don’t think I’ve ever seen 4th of July candy, so I wasn’t surprised that there was no candy in the entire aisle.  Needless to say, I snapped a few photos and then left that aisle to go find something that I went there to buy.

Hurricane Beryl moved onto the southeast coast of Texas early this morning as a Category 1 storm.  It made landfall with sustained winds of 80 mph, but later it weakened to a strong tropical storm with 70 mph winds.

Beryl moved north through Texas coastal cities this morning, causing flash flooding, as well as downed power lines and trees.  So far, downed trees have caused 2 deaths; unfortunately, more fatalities are likely to occur.  More than 2.7 million customers have had power outages in eastern Texas, with many more outages expected to occur.  The storm has been crossing over Houston, Texas’ most populous city and the nation’s fourth largest city.

A week ago, on July 1, Beryl made landfall in Grenada’s Carriacou Island as a Category 4 hurricane.  It tore through the southern Caribbean Islands, mostly as a Category 4 storm but also reaching Category 5 strength that night, the earliest Category 5 storm on record.  It caused a great deal of destruction, and 11 people lost their lives.

After crossing over Mexico’s Yucatan Peninsula as a tropical storm, Beryl re-entered the Gulf of Mexico and became a weak hurricane again before coming onshore in Texas.  The storm is expected to continue weakening and, over the next few days, head northeast across the Mississippi Valley and then the Ohio Valley before dissipating in a few days.

Last night, a TV interview of President Joe Biden took place.  The interview, lasting a little under 22½ minutes, was made on ABC News by George Stephanopoulos.  Biden was asked about his performance in the recent debate between himself and Donald Trump on June 27.  He also was asked about his mental capacity and his competency to be president for another 4-year term.

After the interview, Juju Chang, Rachael Bade and Selina Wang at ABC gave an analysis of the interview for a little over 5 minutes.  All of it can be watched and heard on the video below.

Last night, a couple of friends and I went over to a nearby neighborhood to watch a fireworks show.  We missed at least the first half of it.  Also, the tops of some trees blocked the view of the bottom section of some of the fireworks.  At least we got to see some of them...better than none. 

       

       
25-second slideshow

On the final day of the U.S. Supreme Court’s session for this year, the justices made a ruling in favor of former President Donald Trump.  In a 6-3 vote, they found that Trump cannot be prosecuted for some actions that were within his constitutional powers as president.

Previously, a lower court had rejected Trump’s claim of immunity from federal criminal charges relating to his attempts to undo his 2020 election loss to Joe Biden.  The Supreme Court ruled that Trump did have immunity for his discussions with U.S. Justice Department officials following the 2020 election and also that he did have “presumptive” immunity for his alleged pessure on then Vice-President Mike Pence to block congressional certification of Biden’s win.

However, the court voted to return two other categories to lower courts to determine whether or not Trump has immunity for them.  Those two categories included Trump’s alleged role in assembling fake pro-Trump electors to be used in the election certification process and in his conduct related to the January 6, 2021, attack on the U.S. Capitol by some of his supporters.

Joe Biden has accused the Supreme Court of doing a “terrible disservice” to the nation with their rulings granting Trump some immunity for official acts in office.  The late rulings by the court may cause Trump’s case not to go to trial before the 2024 general election on November 5.  Biden feels that the American people deserve to have an answer in the courts before the upcoming election.